Now is the time to make plans for how you and your club will help to welcome our fellow Rotarians and partners from Lithuania. Find out more about the exchange and how you can be a part of this great Rotary opportunity.
What is the Rotary Friendship Exchange?
Seasoned Rotarians will remember Rotary's Group Study Exchange where one Rotarian leader from the district accompanied a group of 5 or so non-Rotarian young professionals to another country for an opportunity to create friendships, tour and work with others in similar professions. A team from the paired district would then send it's group to the exchange district for the same experience.
The Friendship Exchange differs only in makeup and number of the participants in that that all of them are Rotarians, partners and friends. There is still time for Rotarians in this district to become part of the outbound team, scheduled for later this year. Contact the district's Friendship Exchange coordinator Erin Zorzi, ezorzi@bmts.com for more information.
About District 1462
Lithuania is a Baltic country of three million people located between Poland and Latvia. The district which covers the entire country is composed of 59 clubs with 1800 members, making it almost a duplicate in terms of size as our district 6330.
The first Rotary club in Lithuania was chartered in 1934 and grew to 4 clubs by 1940 when the Soviet occupation began. The clubs were disbanded until 1990 when the Soviet Union fell and the clubs came roaring back with success. Today, district 1462 has 59 Rotary clubs, 11 Rotaract clubs and 19 Interact clubs.
For more information on District 1462 and Lithuania, download and view the PDF file on this page.
How You and Your Club Can Help
- Would you or your club be interested in assisting in their visit?
- A club meet and greet. They could be your speaker, with a banner exchange perhaps
- Overnight accommodation
- Transportation to their next stop
- Does your club or your community have an event while they are here, May 11-21
- Could they assist/work at this or participate in it?
- Could they observe?
- Do you have a connection that would provide discounted entry to something?
- Do you have a connection with a business or factory or farm or hospital (etc) they could visit?
- Does your club or community have an item or two to include in their Welcome Package, or to give them in person when you see them? Ideas…
- Something branded
- Something local
- Something Canadian
- Something edible
- Something easy to pack for travel back home!
- As with most visitors, these folks would like to see Niagara Falls and take a tour of Toronto.
- Do you have connections with Rotarians in either city?
- Do you have suggestions on the most value-added way to see and stay in either city?
Contact Erin Zorzi, ezorzi@bmts.com Friendship Exchange Committee Chair For More Information |
Meet the Incoming Lithuanian Team
  | Vilma is President of Birzai Rotary Club 2022-2023 and is a lawyer. Alina, a close friend of Vilma’s, is a psychotherapist. |
Viktoras is Charter member of Biržai Rotary club since 2006. He is traveling with his wife Birutė. They are farmers. |  |
 | Gražina is a member of Biržai Rotary Club since 2022, She owns her family business of trading, catering, and bakery. She will travel with her daughter Gabriele, who is a project manager for an international electronics manufacturing company |
Pertras is member of Birzai Rotary club since 2018. He is traveling with his wife Danutė. They are farmers. |  |
 | Edvinas is a former member of Rotaract and works in a financial company. Vilma is a member of the Kupiškis Rotary Club since 2002, and works as an external auditor of the municipality. |