"In 2006, American Airlines pilot Trevor Slavick and Denver Radio news anchor Steffan Tubbs discovered what they thought was a simple but powerful truth: a simple soccer ball could unify the world.

Slavick, a lifelong soccer player, took a ball along on his travels so he could work out in-between flights. On a trip to Honduras early in his career, he gave the ball to a shoeshine boy he met at the airport before he left. While taxiing for takeoff, he says he saw the boy, with a group of other shoeshine boys, playing soccer on an open field at the end of the runway. "They were doing what they were supposed to be doing," says Slavick, "playing, not shining people's shoes."

Tubbs' revelation came after he spent a month embedded with the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division in Iraq. He met a young officer, Captain Ian Weikel, who told him soccer balls were like gold in Iraq - his troops would give them away to Iraqi kids while on patrol. Tubbs made a promise to Weikel that when he returned to Denver he would host a promotional drive on his radio station to get Weikel's troops the soccer balls they needed.

But when Tubbs got home, he received a message that Weikel had been killed by a roadside bomb three days earlier. "I felt like I lost a brother," Tubbs says, "I had only known him for the better part of a few days but there was a camaraderie."

Tubbs decided to move forward with the soccer ball drive in Weikel's honor and enlisted the help of his friend Slavick, who activated his network of airline colleagues and soccer friends.

They ended up sending more than 20,000 soccer balls to Iraq - a success so big they decided not to stop there. They started Little Feet with the intention of sending soccer balls to needy kids around the world."

Borrowed from here

If you don't play soccer that's ok too! You can still donate here and still make a difference in a kids life!