December 17 is the day the annual ceremony to award the Lithuanian capital city’s highest honor, statues of the city’s patron saint St. Christopher, take place at the Old Town Hall. This year 10 Vilnius residents were awarded for contributions to art, education, environmental protection, health care, science and other fields. Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius presented the awards. Aligirdas Kaušpėdas, architect, honorary citizen of Vilnius and member of the awards committee, began the ceremony saying a total of 55 nominations had been received and it took three sittings of the committee to choose the winners.

“The committee studied carefully each candidate and discussions went on until there was consensus. We try to include many fields, but we don’t award the prize where there are not really worthy candidates,” Kaušpėdas explained.

Award winners this year included photographer Algimantas Kunčius, composer and musician Kipras Mašanauskas, Vilnius Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium principal Miša Jakobas, Lithuanian Association of Prisoners’ Care Milda Bliumenzonienė, environmental protection specialist Pranas Baltrėnas, architect Gintaras Čaikauskas, cardiologist Pranas Šerpytis, academic Virginijus Šikšnys, businessperson Robertas Dargis and New Idea Chamber Orchestra NIKO artistic director Gediminas Gelgotas.

Vilnius Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium principal Miša Jakobas celebrated a special opening fo the school year this last September 1 as his school finally settled into new housing in the Vilnius neighborhood of Žvėrynas. The school principal has made great contributions to the development of multicultural education and culture in Vilnius, but he dedicated this last year to the school, which has turned out to be one of the city’s most beautiful.

“Where did I get it? I bought it. How much did I pay? I won’t say,” Jakobas joked about the new school buildings. “When will I sell? Never, no one has that much money. How will I celebrate? I will buy a bottle of soda pop,” he continued.

Full story in Lithuanian here.