NEWPORT BEACH — Trevor Slavick is a soccer nut.
That's why he plays in a Newport Beach adult soccer league. It's the reason he coaches a girls' soccer team in Laguna Beach. And it helps explain why he's sent more than 23,000 soccer balls to people around the world.
He's mailed soccer balls to soldiers in Iraq and orphans in Guatemala, Kenya, and elsewhere, all through a charity called Little Feet, which he and a college friend founded.
Now Slavick is looking for more soldiers who can distribute the donated balls, and he plans to deliver them to poor children in as many countries as he can. "We're going to start doing this all over the world," he said in an interview at his Newport Beach home.
The idea was born in Honduras. Slavick, 36, works as a pilot for American Airlines when he's not playing soccer, so he's a well-traveled guy.
In 1999 he was visiting Honduras, and he was touched by what he saw. "When you get off the airplane there's hundreds of kids that come running up, and they want to shine your shoes for 25 cents," he said.
One of the kids was wearing a sports jersey, so Slavick decided to give him a soccer ball he'd brought along.
As Slavick was leaving, he said, "I looked over, and they had all dropped the shoeshine boxes that they had and they were playing soccer with this ball I gave them."
That experience piqued his interest, but the catalyst was his college friend, Steffan Tubbs. Now a Denver radio host, Tubbs has worked for ABC News and Fox. He spent a month embedded with a military unit in Iraq and told Slavick about it.
"He saw the soldiers giving kids balls…. They said they're like gold there. It helps them make friends," Slavick said.
But one more thing had to happen to bring it all together. Tubbs mentioned on the radio that he wanted to send soccer balls to Iraq, but he wasn't sure logistically how to do it. Right away he got an e-mail from Alice Clement, who develops business for the sporting goods store chain Sports Authority.
When Tubbs was broadcasting from Iraq, Clement said, "I just listened and I thought it was really interesting."
She wasn't sure at first how to get balls to soldiers, but she knew she could figure it out, and she did: Get addresses and mail them directly to soldiers, who can hand them out.
So in March of this year, Slavick and Tubbs formed a charity called Little Feet, Big Goals, and everything came together.
