Zalgiris Kaunas introduces new One Team project 0

Lithuanian champion Zalgiris Kaunas has started the fourth season with EuroLeague Basketball social program One Team. This time Zalgiris has made a big step forward and started working with detained teenagers, who had made mistakes in the past.

This year Zalgiris delegated two big but friendly players – Antanas Kavaliauskas and Augusto Lima – to be One Team ambassadors. Last week both big men visited a youth detention center in Kaunas.

One Team project involves the best European basketball teams doing volunteer work with socially sensitive groups. The goal is to help young people with social integration and to make them believe that their dreams can one day become the reality.

Augusto Lima alongside with Antanas Kavaliauskas got a chance to teach basketball fundamentals to residents of the youth detention center in Kaunas. They also had a long and important conversation about the future, which motivated the teenagers and gave them much-needed inspiration.

“This Zalgiris visit really boosted our self-confidence and taught us to never give up. One Team helps us to find our goals”, – said one of the boys.

Even though One Team has weekly programs this particular event really stood out. Not only could the young guys meet two EuroLeague stars, but they also had the chance to open up about their challenges, hopes and dreams.

“It was really nice to communicate with these guys, to see how they live. Maybe the boys have made some mistakes in the past, but I think that they have learnt from them” – told Antanas Kavaliauskas. “I truly believe that these teenagers will achieve their dreams. They just need to work hard and study.”

Augusto Lima had similar thoughts after the visit. He thinks that these boys need to put their pasts behind them and try to be better each day.