ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Turn urban spaces into meeting places, play and sharing, putting in the center boys and girls who will have the opportunity to live sports as an instrument of inclusion, well-being and correct lifestyles. Today, at the Salone d’Onore del Coni, the 25th Edition of “Banca Generali – A champion by friend”, a project in collaboration with Sport and Health Spa, which will be staged in 12 Italian squares and which is set as a shock therapy to convey to the new generations the importance of sports, in full harmony with what enshrined in Article 33 of the Italian Constitution. Ambassadors of this important message will be five great champions of blue sport: Adriano Panatta, Andrea Lucchetta, Ciccio Graziani, Martin Leandro Castrogiovanni and Maurizia Cacciatori. Starting from Thursday, April 22nd, more than 10 thousand primary and secondary school children from all over Italy will be involved in the most important national event with a sports-educative character: tennis, rugby, football and volleyball will be the disciplines in which young students will compete against sports and life champions. The tour, also supported by Salugea, Axpo Italia, Pulsee Luce and Gas and Fila, will take the route from Livorno and will unwind along the whole peninsula touching 12 of the most beautiful squares of our country. Banca Generali confirms its focus on the issues of value towards young people, choosing to support the Un Campione per Friend event for the fifteenth consecutive year, strengthening its commitment to financial education in this new edition. During the event, children will receive the booklet ‘Tesori to discover! Guide to savings and blackmail, designed to illustrate the concepts of savings to children, to reflect on the value of money and the need to manage it responsibly, and to deepen, in class and in family and in a fun way, these themes often complex also for adults. “We are pleased to continue to support this extraordinary project, which has now reached its 25th edition. A quarter of a century in which the champions have brought in hundreds of Italian squares the spirit and values of sport, the desire to be together, to feel active part of a community and to make team within each territory, large and small, of our Country – said Gian Maria Mossa, CEO and General Manager of Banca Generali -. A kermesse that has always given rise to unique enthusiasm and energy and that this year is renewed thanks to the participation of new partners and the commitment of public institutions in support of the development of sports culture. News aimed at extending even more the audience of young people and not only that they will meet the champions and receive their example of commitment, discipline and sacrifice. Universal elements of our work alongside families, to accompany them in the challenges of saving. Our banks every day are committed, like a champion-coach, to guiding our customers towards the goals set with responsibility and strong of a consolidated relationship of trust”. “In an increasingly complex world, with geopolitical variables that increasingly affect the economy and markets, we believe it is important to strengthen the work of awareness, also through sport and, in our small one, to promote financial education as the first step that helps to form a consciousness attentive to savings and protection over time,” he adds. “A champion by friend is an initiative that embodies in an extraordinary way what sport should always be: a common good, alive, accessible, able to enter the squares and the everyday life of people. This is where sport stops being spectacle and returns to be community, meeting, shared energy between generatingdifferent ni – emphasizes the Ad of Sport and Health, Diego Nepi Molineris -. With the project ‘Sport Illuminà we are going exactly in this direction: bringing sport back to the center of the life of cities and people, without any economic or social barrier. Because sport does not belong to a few, but to all. It is inclusion, it is well-being, it is collective growth, it is life. And all starts from there, from a ball, from a game, from the smile and the fun of children: it is from that simplicity that the future of sport is born”. Then the intervention of the sample and creator of the project, Adriano Panatta: “We have reached the 25th edition of ‘A Champion for Amicò, fifteen alongside Banca Generali, with which a solid and lasting relationship has been established, but it is always a great emotion to be able to cross Italy from North to South, meet thousands of children, play with them and see how they all have fun together in the open air coloring with their smiles the most beautiful Italian squares. A journey that from this edition avails itself of another important partner like Sport and Health Spa, with which we share the vision of a sports activity that is everyone, for everyone and with the aim to promote correct and healthy lifestyles. Our goal, moreover, is also to foster through the game, sharing, inclusion, acceptance, respect, all fundamental values of sport but above all of life. It is beautiful, then, to see how ‘A Champion for Amicò, continue to grow every year. More cities involved and an increasingly active participation of boys and girls who are the real protagonists of the event.” “The latter aspect – said Panatta – is the real driving element of a project that has now entered the sports agenda of the country, because when we go to the squares of Italy we play with each child, we talk with their teachers, with their parents, we want to give at all times of carefreeness in a society like the current one, increasingly divisive and where we all go too fast. For this reason it is essential to understand that the physical and cognitive well-being of children depends a lot on the lifestyle of those close to them, who often becomes a model to imitate.” “For us, the project “A Champion for Friend” has a fundamental importance. For 15 years we have supported it: in this period we have already made 240 stages involving 230 thousand children and boys. This year we start again with 12 stages and we really believe that this project links the proximity of the territory with the values of inclusion, competition and ambition that reflect sport, all inserted in a healthy logic – said Stefano Lenti, Head of Business Networks of Banca Generali – We also appreciate the idea of being able to make a parallel between our work and the metaphor of sport, where the sacrifice can lead to the goals that arises”. The 2026 edition of “Banca Generali – Un Campione per Amico” will touch altogether between April and October, 12 cities: Livorno (22 April); Como (29 April); Rimini (5 May); Belluno (14 May); Sanremo (20 May); Martina Franca (28 May); Bologna (4 June); Altamura (30 September), Faenza (7 October), Pistoia (14 October), Vicenza (21 October) and Mantua (28 October). The format remains unchanged: in the most beautiful Italian squares will be set up four fields (small size) from tennis, volleyball, football and rugby, there will be entertainment, music and gadgets. A morning of sport and carefreeness. In the stages, children will participate without any distinction of skill, thanks to the involvement of associations present on the territory selected in collaboration with the Italian Paralympic Committee. Also this year is confirmed the patronage of CONI. Thanks to the organization of RG and the partnerships it has managed to tighten with the Institutions, the event has become one of the most important initiatives andhe binds Sport to the world of the School. Its success is in fact written in the numbers: 24 editions in archive, more than 240 stages already traveled, a staff of over 50 people moving from city to city, but above all about 230 thousand children involved. The conference was also attended, among others, Lorenzo Marzoli, Director of the Sports Direction in the Territories of Sports and Health, Stefano Lenti, Head of the Commercial Networks of Banca Generali, Michele Seghizzi, Head of Communication and External Relations of Banca Generali, the Councillor for the Sport of the Municipality of Martina Franca, Vincenzo Angelini, the Councillor for the School of Education and Sport of the Municipality of Faenza, Martina Laghi, and the association.
– photos mec/Italpress – (ITALPRESS).
