Hansen is making a big impact

There are plenty of Americans who make good and bad impressions in Moscow, but Travis Hansen may be in a league of his own.

The former BYU, Utah Valley and Mountain View High star is one of a few multimillionaire basketball players who play in the Euro League. A star for Dynamo Moscow, Hansen was named to the All-Eurocup team on Friday and will lead his team to the Final Eight in Torino, Italy, this week.

Hansen leads Dynamo in scoring and steals. His 16.2 scoring average ranks fourth in Eurocup overall, and his Eurocup index rating of 17.5 ranks ninth in the league.

Hansen is a tenacious defender, and his offense spans a game in which he can play all four positions on the court. That he holds a Russian passport makes this former resident of Orem even more intriguing to the Russian press.

But as good as Hansen has been as a professional, it's his work off the court with charity in that country that has brought him both national and worldwide attention. Russia's largest sports magazine recently put Hansen on the cover of a feature article titled "Missionaries."

More than two years ago, Hansen's wife, LaRee, who was struggling to have another child, looked into adoption in Russia. What she discovered was a nightmare, a world of forgotten orphans living under heart-breaking conditions, a system overloaded and burdened with fallout from the country's rampant alcoholism and broken families.

LaRee told Travis they had to do something. "Even if it was just for one child, we have to help."

More than two years later, the Little Heroes Foundation, created by the Han?sens, has drawn support and contributions from throughout the world, including Utah companies Nature's Sunshine and Nu Skin. The charity partnership has included a project to build a school in Mali, West Africa.

But the work has been bigger than brick and mortar. It's become bigger than the renovation of an old hospital in Lyubertsy, now a bustling orphanage with new wiring, bathroom fixtures, furniture, cribs, tile, TV sets, staff and professional medical volunteers.

It's become bigger than mail and e-mail and bags of contributions of both goods and services, people asking to come to Moscow and donate carpentry work or just hold children.

It's saving lives.