My husband Giedrius Baumilas met Mrs. & Dr. Kazickas in 2002. He had learned that a book “Odyssey of Hope” (published in Lithuania) depicted the lives of the Kazickas family members and relatives. Giedrius called the Kazickas residence in East Hampton nearby town where we lived at the time and found them at home. He had asked if he could borrow the book until he got one for himself from Lithuania. Mrs & Dr. Kazickas invited him over, greeted him with kindness and lent him the book. Some time later, along with our daughter Vilia, we visited with Mrs. & Dr. Kazickas, returned their book and asked them to autograph ours. That’s how our communication began. The letter of 12.28.2004 of Mrs. A. Kazickas is very warm and shows her impeccable knowledge of Lithuanian.

     In the letter of 1.3.2006 Mrs. A. Kazickas wrote: “if you ever need any help, I’ll never say no”. This sentence gave me a thought to ask the Kazickas family to support a blossoming idea to create a Lithuanian Saturday School.

     In October 2006, in Riverhead, NY, Alexandra Kazickas Lithuanian School opened its doors for the first school year. The school has been financially supported by KFF since.

     Mrs. Alexandra Kazickas continued writing letters to us until the end and has graciously given her permission to share them. (The letters are in Lithuanian only)

            02.08.2009           01.26.2007
            12.10.2008           12.04.2006
            02.14.2008           12.2006
            03.21.2008           01.03.2006
            09.17.2007           12.28.2004
            03.20.2007
 
                                           Sincerely,
                                           Neila Baumiliene