This is a tremendous announcement and a well-deserved accomplishment. It was a true pleasure to write a letter of recommendation for this award, and an easy task...as Aidas has been a friend to the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield University both as a mentor in our Sports Writing Young Adult Literacy Lab and with the 2019 screening of Hoops Africa: Ubuntu Matters as part of the Saugatuck Story Fest.
Sports stories are life stories, and he's writing his own. In the summer of 2019, Aidas traveled to Zimbabwe with Vilia Baumilliene, another Lithuanian student from Fairfield University, to work with Hoops4Hope, my cousin Mark's international non-profit that promotes sport as community engagement with youth. From the letter of support I wrote,
First, I wish to detail Aidas’s excellence as a role model to the work that I do. I direct one of 150 National Writing Projects across the nation, and the only one residing at a MAAC school. This work primarily focuses on K-12 schools, teachers, and students, where I run institutes, workshops, professional development, and conferences. Unique to the Connecticut Writing Project has been the creation of several Young Adult Literacy Labs during the summer months, where 100s of kids come to Fairfield University to focus on writing in a wide variety of genres, including sports writing. Aidas, on campus during the summer months, was first to volunteer for our camps, especially to discuss his love of basketball, his strength of learning in a 2nd language, and his story of perseverance, athleticism, academic achievement, and personal goal-setting. 50% of our young people are on scholarship from high-needs school districts, and Aidas’s has always been willing to share his life with them.
In the summer of 2018, my cousin Mark Crandall, founder of Hoops4Hope Africa, contacted me with a question, “Do you know of any athlete who’d like to work with programs in Zimbabwe for a couple of weeks this summer, especially if they are from Lithuania?” I scratched my head, called Coach Johnson, and WOLA!, it was confirmed that Aidas was, indeed, from Lithuania. The Kazickas Family Foundation, established in 1998, supports projects and vision for young people from Lithuania to experience culture, the arts, social welfare, technology, and medicine The foundation wished to collaborate with Hoops4Hope to provide an opportunity for a Lithuanian student, especially who might help mentor them on ways to create similar youth programming in their own country. There were many calls across countries, with regulators of NCAA sports, and with leaders across campus. The quick story supersedes my doubts that Aidas Kavaliauskas would ever be allowed to spend the summer in Zimbabwe. Yet, he did. He also became one of two athletes named that year as a “Stag for Others.”At a time where we are cleaning up tree limbs after a tropical storm and donning face-masks to keep viruses at bay, news of Aidas's recognition as a MAAC scholar provides grace and hope. Of course, now I am thinking it will require another steak dinner on Mt. Pleasant, as that seems to be the go-to meal whenever he stops by. The boy can eat!
I can't wait to see where Aidas Kavaliauskas goes in his future. He will finish his Masters at Fairfield University and then move towards a vision that has been building for many years. It will be amazing to see what comes next for Aidas.
CONGRATULATIONS!
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