On September 24th, the "Cultural Twists" awards of the Rokiškis region were presented. One of the awards, "Professional Support for Cultural Projects," was given to Sigita Gasiūnienė-Bracienė, a member of the VVG board and the chairperson of the Aukštakalniai village community (shown in the photo).

From September 6th to 8th, Obeliai celebrated its traditional "Obelinė" festival along with this year's sporting highlight – the Olympics. For the first time in history, the Rokiškis region can proudly boast Olympic bronze medals, earned by Lithuania's 3x3 Olympic basketball team. Out of the four players, two were from Rokiškis: Gintautas Matulis, originally from Rokiškis, and Šarūnas Vingelis from Obeliai.

To honor their victory, the resourceful and creative people of Obeliai built a model of the Eiffel Tower in their square, which will long serve as a reminder of this remarkable Olympics. Additionally, Šarūnas Vingelis was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Obeliai by the townspeople.

The Eiffel Tower of Obeliai, where Olympic basketball player Šarūnas Vingelis, a native of Obeliai, climbed up. Next to the tower, enjoying the spectacle, is the creator of the idea, Romas Kundelis, the founder of the "Small Towns Basketball League." Photo by Egidijus Vilimas.

On August 23rd, the rural community "Pakriauna" marked its 20th anniversary with the 10th traditional honey harvest festival. The entire cultural community of Obeliai contributed to the event with various activities—educational programs on honey, beeswax, herbs, and scents were presented, folk artists exhibited their works in the library, and local performers from Obeliai entertained on stage.

Over the 20 years of active work, the community has only had two leaders: Saulius Stanišauskas during the first decade, and Ala Nikitina during the second. All those who cherish and actively participate in community activities were remembered and honored.

The celebration was filled with children's enthusiasm as they illustrated their impressions of life in Pakriauniai village for the festival's exhibition and even prepared their own performance for the event. Obeliai's local government commissioned the local blacksmith, Vidas Turkevičius, to create and present a special "Pakriauna" marker to the community.

At the unveiling ceremony of the sign (from left) were Jūratė Šinkūnienė, the head of Obeliai eldership, and Ala Nikitina, the chairperson of the community.

On May 21st a traditional bicycle ride is being organized to celebrate the day of honoring the partisans, the army and  th society day. This year's march will be dedicated to the history of the Lithuanian partisans who operated in the Šimonys forest.

Applications for the 2023 selection competition of examples of good projects of the Lithuanian rural development 2014-2020 program "Future village developers 2023" must be submitted by April 30th.

Only completed projects that have been implemented without violations, have not been subject to sanctions and have achieved all the monitoring indicators provided for in the project application can be submitted to the tender.

Executors of eligible projects who wish to participate in the Good Project Examples competition must complete the "Good Project Example Form"

for more information - click here

On April 3rd-29th, events are held in Kamajai in memory of Antanas Strazdas "Ei, tu tu tu Strazdelis, tujei mandras paukštelis".

40,000 Euros are provided in the budget of the municipality of Rokiškis district for the participating budget: 20,000 Euros to implement district projects and 20,000 Euros for city projects. The purpose of financing community initiatives aimed at improving the living environment, project finansating idea is to increase the opportunities of citizens to be included in the formation of the municipal budget.

The applicant can be any resident who has declared their place of residence in the municipality of Rokiškis district, who is at least 16 years old, and who has collected 20 signatures of residents who have declared their place of residence in the district, supporting the idea.

Proposals for project ideas are being accepted until 2023 March 14th at the Rokiškis district municipality administration (Respublikos g. 94, Rokiškis) and electronically (e-mail: savivaldybe@rokiskis.lt).

The value of the project implementation is up to 20,000 Euros.

More information can be found here