US Soccer Supporter Makes a Difference for Impoverished Kids

by Brock Kwiatkowsky   Click Here for Full article

What would it take to keep you from your tickets to the Liverpool vs. Barcelona Champions League match and several other matches from your long-planned soccer vacation in England? For one US Supporter, Trevor Slavick, the answer was kids --- and not his own. Trevor had scheduled his soccer plans months earlier, but, as the time approached, it became clear that an important meeting for the charity, Little Feet, Big Goals!, which he co-founded with Steffan Tubbs in early 2006, was going to happen on that very weekend. Goodbye soccer; Hello suit and tie!

The world embraces soccer, and similarly soccer embraces the world. But the world that soccer embraces is imperfect and has scars old and new. As Sammers and supporters of the US National Team, our pursuit of soccer takes us across the world to the bright cities of London, Paris, Nurnberg, and Seoul. But soccer is also loved along the margins of the world, and it’s not often that we find ourselves in these desperate spaces. In the two years since Little Feet was established, they have traveled to the margins to help innocent children caught up in the turmoil of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other areas affected by poverty. Over 50,000 soccer balls have been distributed by Little Feet, Big Goals!. Children in the Middle East, Africa, Central America, and North America have had their spirits lifted and their dreams sparked by a simple round ball. Says co-founder Tubbs, "A soccer ball is like gold for these kids."

US National Team player Cobi Jones, who has lent his name and support to aid this cause, has added, "I don’t think anything else can touch these kids like a soccer ball can." Little Feet’s latest initiative is to bring soccer balls to the children in the refugee camps created by the tragedy in Darfur. Trevor says, "Maybe children who haven’t smiled or played in months will smile and play once again." A soccer ball won’t stop the war, and it won’t fill a belly, but it might help heal a soul and let children be children --- at least for a little while. As part of the new initiative, you can buy a Little Feet soccer ball for yourself, and at the same time, a ball will be donated and sent to Darfur. This falls somewhere between fairly incredible to pretty amazing when you sit down to think about it. So Trevor set aside his Champions League tickets, and in the end it wasn’t a tough decision at all… Soccer has been called "The Beautiful Game", and it’s also been known as "The World’s Game". Sometimes in the out of the way places, we find it to be "The Healing Game".

Want to help out yourself? You can go to www.littlefeet.com for more information.