News

“Basketball Power” head Arminas Vareika rekindled old friendship with men’s wheelchair basketball team “Draugyste”(Friendship) that started during the season closing of “Basketball Power” program at the KFF-NBA newly refurbished court in 2015. "Draugyste" had a friendly match with the latest program’s friends, basketball club “Kazkur Matyti” (Somewhere Seen).

In response to KFF request for a meeting, vice Minister of Interior of Lithuania Mr. Urbonas organized one on 2/13/2017 in the Ministry, in Vilnius.

In the beginning of February, while in Lithuania, members of the Kazickas Family and foundation's administration, along with the head of Basketball Power (BP) program, visited the Zalgiris Arena in Kaunas where they got a tour of the arena, team rooms, practice court, and private boxes and met with Paulius Motiejunas, President of BC"Zalgiris", to tell him about the BP program.

As suicide in Lithuania has become a significant national social issue due to its high rate (29 out of 100,000 people in 2014), KFF has been looking at the problem as well. On February 16, 2017, in the Kazickas Family Residence, a meeting with Prof. Paulius Skruibis, Dr. Vaiva Klimaite and Ms. Agne Mazvilaite was held. Paulius is an associate professor at the Department of Clinical Psychology at Vilnius University, Lithuania. Vaiva is a psychologist and the Head of the Department of Suicide prevention Vilnius Center of Mental Health, Vilnius University. Agne is the Head of Youth Hotline of Lithuania. 

During Marcie, John, Annalina and Peter Kazickas visit to Lithuania in January and February, the KFF was introduced to DevBridge members at the Residence to learn more about the Chicago-headquartered technology consulting company with offices in Vilnius and Kaunas.

Trade School "Sodziaus meistrai" in Trakai, supported by KFF, provides youth with an alternative to your traditional, academic education by teaching crafts and trades to around 70 learners, including, for example, carpentry, cooking, and landscaping. Peter and Annalinai Kazickas had an opportunity to visit it during their visit to Lithuania.

KFF through its Alexandra Kazickas Grant Program supports Lithuanian Heritage Schools in the US. Lithuanian School in Washington DC sends their gratitude for the support:

We are proud of the Basketball Power coach of Marijampole Andrius Levanas and share his achievements with you. While working as a police sports instructor, he noticed that his police department had to deal with teens of an adjacent school more than regularly. He found Basketball Power program on Facebook, wrote to the program's manager and asked if he could join the program with the teens from the school. And the rest is history. Thank you, Andrius!

Article in "15min.lt" about "Basketball Power" student Edvardas.

by Inga Saukiene

Eighteen year old Edvardas knows it really well what it means to be rejected. Young man, who grew up in the Foster home, doesn’t even try to hide that just few years ago he was searching for affection at the street fights.

In preparation for the Lithuanian Language Proficiency Test for the YOUTH (born in 2003 and older) of the Lithuanian Diaspora on March 25-26, 2017, KFF held meetings in the Ministry of Education and Science on February 10, and in the Department of the Lithuanian Studies in Vilnius University on February 14