Gala Dinner in Honor of His Majesty Emperor

On the 26^th of May a historical visit of Japanese monarchs – His Majesty Emperor Akihito and Her Majesty Empress Michiko – took place in Lithuania. We were immensely happy and honored, because the Fund Rugutė received an invitation for one representative of the fund to attend the gala dinner in honor of the Imperial Couple, at the Presidential Palace. Rugutė was represented by Aida, (mother of Pijus, our Little Angel and Captain of Hearts), who has been spreading goodness, light and never-ending love around Rugutė’s family, and who is always offering her tireless helping hand.

Rugutė and the Land of the Rising Sun are bound by a very warm and beautiful friendship. We cherish the memories of more than a hundred traditional music performers who gifted us by incredibly sincere concerts in Vilnius last March, and who invited us to join the Goodness Campaign for children with oncological diseases. We also remember the doctors of the National Cancer Center of Japan, members of the association Friendship Japan–Lithuania, who visited children in the Clinic of Kaunas, and we remember, too, the Lithuanian Embassy in Tokyo.

During the Days of Japanese Culture the choir singers from Japan gave thousands of hand-made origami paper cranes to children of Rugutė and to Aida, the mother of our little Fighter Pijus, who left us barely one week after this event. Those paper cranes carried genuine goodness and love on their wings, from the far-away land to our hearts.

Today we want to say a word of thanks to Ms. Alma Adamkienė for the exceptionally beautiful and sincere opening speech for the Days of Japanese Culture that touched all of our hearts.

We sincerely thank the Presidency of the Republic of Lithuania for honoring Rugutė’s family by inviting its representative to this special gala dinner with the Emperor and Empress of the country that gifted us with Cranes of Hope.