According to the local municipality, a monument to Berenson Abbott will be funded by the Cultural and Historic Memory Fund, with contributions also pledged from the Lithuanian Basketball federation, Giedrius Gustas, director of the Lithuanian Women's Basketball League, Zivile Belejevaite, head of the Lithuanian House of Basketball, and also Jurgita Streimikyte-Virbickiene, a former one of the best basketball players in Lithuania and now a coach, who was also born in Alytus.
Former basketball player and now TV producer, director and script writer Rolandas Skaisgirys is taking case of the implementation of the "Mother of Women's Basketball" monument idea.
Berenson Abbott (born Valvrojenski) was born on March 19, 1868 in Butrimonys in then Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Lithuania's southern Alytus District) and later moved with her mother and two brother to Boston, US where her father Albert Valvrojenski had emigrated.
The family cut ties with it Jewish origin and changed their surname to Berenson.
In 1892, Berenson Abbott learnt about the invention of basketball by James Naismith, me with him and decided to adapt the game's rules for women.
Berenson Abbott created the rules for women in 1899 after modifying them for a number of years, and her rules remained relevant for some 70 years.