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On October 19th, the Kazickas Family Foundation celebrated its 25th anniversary with a gala in Vilnius Town Hall. The goal of the event was to recognize the Foundation and its partners’ mutual accomplishments and to honor a few special organizations and people.
During the event, a few special partners were honored: Blue/Yello (for rapid response to crises), the Center for Combating Human Trafficking and Exploitation (for creating social welfare), the Vilnius Archdiocese's "Caritas" Alternative Education Center (for empowering young people), the series of concerts "Sacred Music Hours" (for long-term partnership) and Albinas Kentra (for lifetime achievements).
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Over 25 years, the Foundation allocated about 15 million. dollars. Every year, KFF supports about 100 organizations in the USA, Lithuania and Zimbabwe.
"We support not only organizations, but also programs initiated by the family members. For example, "Youth Can" - the development of life skills through sports for young people in the regions, "Bring Together Lithuania" - an internship program for diaspora youth, "Uncommon" - a program operating in Zimbabwe and Lithuania where young people can learn IT and life skills", - Michael Kazickas.
According to John Kazickas, guided by the tradition of philanthropy in the family and love for Lithuania, the Foundation annually supports about 30 Lithuanian organizations. About 50 percent of all support goes to organizations related to Lithuania.
KFF has been operating since 1998 in New York, and since 1999 - in Vilnius. It was founded by Dr. Joseph P. Kazickas together with his wife Alexandra. After regaining independence, they contributed to the restoration of The Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, monuments, churches, book publishing, and the establishment of the President V. Adamkus Library-Museum. Later, the Foundation turned its attention to young people, whose education and empowerment became one of the priority areas of the Kazickas family.
Jurate Kazickaite, the daughter of Joseph and Alexandra Kazickas, has been the president of the Foundation since its establishement. Over time, the number of members of the Kazickas family has increased in the Foundation - there are currently three generations in it.
"All family members are involved in philanthropic activities and support the areas of their choice. Since there are a lot of us in the family and we operate in more than one country, we can react flexibly to what is happening in the world. In fact, one of the priority areas at the moment is responding to crisis, such as the refugee crisis, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine," said Katarina Kazickas.
On this occasion, a total of 10 family members came to Lithuania to visit and participate in the event: the children of J. P. and A. Kazickas with their spouses and two granddaughters.
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