Lithuania is planning to build a monument, entitled Mother of Women’s Basketball, to honour the memory of Senda Berenson Abbott.
Berenson Abbott (Valvrojenski) was born on March 19, 1868 in Butrimonys in southern Lithuania, which was then part of the Russian Empire. She later emigrated with her family to Boston, United States. The family later renounced its Jewish roots and changed their surname to Berenson.
In 1892, Berenson Abbott learnt about the invention of basketball by James Naismith. She then created the rules for women’s basketball in 1899, which remained in force for some 70 years.
The idea to build a monument in southern Lithuania is being implemented by Rolandas Skaisgirys, a former basketball player and now TV producer, director and script writer.
According to the local municipality, the monument will be funded by the Cultural and Historical Memory Fund, with contributions also pledged from the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, as well as Giedrius Gustas, director of the Lithuanian Women's Basketball League, Živilė Belejevaitė, head of the Lithuanian House of Basketball, and Jurgita Štreimikytė-Virbickienė one of the top basketball players in Lithuania.
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