On October 14, at the Lakewood Estonian House in New Jersey, the Joint Baltic American National Committee (JBANC) joined in celebrating in the annual Baltic Unity Day commemoration.
The afternoon commenced with the procession of the national flags of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the singing of the American and all three Baltic national anthems and invocation.
Around one hundred attendees from the three Baltic communities were addressed by representatives from the Baltic diplomatic corps and leaders of local Baltic communities. Among the speakers were Karl Altau and Anna Udre, representing JBANC, who highlighted efforts in advocating in Washington, DC. The JBANC representatives stressed the importance of building coalitions to strengthen our mission, and the importance of working with Congress and expanding the Baltic Caucus.
“We’re your voice in Washington, DC,” said Altau, and explained that our outreach to congressional offices has grown. In addition, JBANC has been working on reaching a wider audience to raise awareness of issues relevant to the Baltic communities by upgrading its social media presence.
“We’re analyzing data to see when our posts are most effective on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube, and we’re trying to be creative with our content.
Please follow our daily posts and spread the word about the work JBANC is doing on the Hill,” added Udre.
The Baltic Unity Day program also included folkthemed musical and dancing performances by children of the local Lithuanian and Estonian schools and Latvian performer Evija Sloka.
JBANC
