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KFF NY office director Neila Baumiliene, KFF Vilnius office director Agne Vertelkaite and KFF AKGP manager Gintaute Genender introduced the foundation’s work, while Rotary Club members shared their work, presented Rotary Youth Exchange program and discussed possible ways to collaborate.

Chartered in 2008, the 26-member Rotary Club of Chicagoland Lithuanians is the only Lithuanian-speaking Rotary club outside of Lithuania. According to its members, the club is a way for them to both preserve their identity and be valuable members of society.

The members’ can-do spirit helps them bring in more than $100,000 through their annual September golf outings and dinners. The money raised has been for different causes in Lithuania, as well as local communities. Rotary Club of Chicagoland Lithuanians has purchased Insulin pumps for hundreds of children in Lithuania for many years, helped critically ill children there, as well as supported local shelter for victims of domestic violence, partnering with a club in a neighboring suburb.

Members range in age from their 30s to their 50s, and the club has almost the same number of men and women. All but three members were born in Lithuania — and those three are the children of immigrants who arrived in the United States as refugees after World War II.

Photos: Sandra Scedrina