On the second level of the City Rondell, work is already in full swing. Hardworking volunteers from Boxing VS and the ProKids Foundation have set up a boxing ring there. Will there be a boxing match on the upcoming Sunday shopping day? Not at all. The organizers want to demonstrate their inclusive boxing project "Fight for Your Life" to the many shoppers there.

This is undoubtedly the social project that has made the most headlines in the city recently. It aims to teach young people from socially disadvantaged families, many of them with a migrant background, through daily boxing training that hard work, discipline, and a strong will are the keys to success in life. "Fight for your Life" is an initiative by Oliver Vlcek, the former national boxing coach and honorary chairman of Boxing VS, and is now run under the umbrella of the ProKids Foundation.

It is thanks to the foundation that "Fight for your Life" continued after the city dropped the project financially like a hot potato in the summer. After state funding expired, Vlcek needed new sponsors. However, a majority in the city council signaled that they would refuse to provide funding. Mayor Dr. Kubon then removed the item from the agenda. "Fight for your Life" faced an existential funding gap and was on the verge of collapse, even though the district firmly supported the concept and project sponsor Thorsten Frei advocated for a rethink. But even the influential member of the Bundestag, who is also the patron of the ProKids Foundation, was unable to achieve success on the political level.

However, he saved "Fight for Your Life" with the help of the ProKids Foundation, which had supported Oliver Vlcek in its founding years earlier. Once again, the foundation's chairman, Joachim Spitz, and his colleagues were reliable – they stepped in on behalf of the city and bridged the largest funding gap, allowing the educational boxing training to continue.



Oliver Vlcek, now sports director of the Württemberg Boxing Association, is extremely pleased about this. Together with Joachim Spitz, he wants to convey his activities to opponents of boxing and make it clear to them that this discipline can have a high socio-educational value. The Rotary Club of Villingen-Schwenningen has long recognized this and awarded the project and its founder, Oliver Vlcek, the Paul Harris Prize for social commitment – just as it did the following year to Joachim Spitz, who, with his foundation, has initiated and successfully led a wealth of social projects over the past ten years.

"Our goal," says Spitz, "is to publicize our boxing project on Sunday and introduce interested parties to our educational approach." He firmly believes that "Fight for Your Life" is a good fit for a regional center. "Villingen-Schwenningen needs something like this, and Oliver Vlcek is an outstanding professional with tremendous commitment to the young people he takes under his wing. He's unparalleled." City Rondell manager Rudolf Haselbach shares this view, which is why he's making the presentation space in the center available to the foundation. "It's only natural," says Haselbach.

The opportunity to present themselves in the centrally located shopping center in the city center is also a good opportunity to directly address children and young people. Joachim Spitz and Oliver Vlcek agree: "We want to reach out to the problem kids where they are most often found."