Sparkman represented in Guatemala this past summer as young soccer players wore former jerseys for their games and tournaments.

For the last few years, old jerseys have been saved when we finish out a soccer season but this year the board came up with a different idea.

Soccer board member, Blake Reid, suggested donating them to players in need. The board agreed with the idea and they started looking for future recipients.

“I knew the Sparkman Soccer board had about 100 old uniforms in storage and didn’t have any use for them. My friends, the Irwin’s, travel to Guatemala a couple of times a year and take donated soccer equipment to give to the local children. I thought what could be a better use of the uniforms than giving them to children that have never had one before?” Reid said.

Junior Briana Irwin has family who lives throughout Guatemala. She loves going to visit them during school breaks because it keeps her close to her cousins.

“I have 64 cousins on my mom’s side. I’m close with my uncle’s son, Pablo. He’s been here to visit. I’m also close to my second cousin, Blanca. We have a house down there so that’s where we stay because our neighborhood is basically made up of our family. I go every two years, every Christmas and every summer. In the summer I go and teach English classes and I’ll hang out with my family…Christmas is just our big family celebration,” Irwin said.

In early June, Irwin and her mother headed to Guatemala with all the jerseys intact. When they arrived, they surprised the leagues with the gifts.

“When we went to give them their jerseys, the coach took them out of the bag and looked at them. He looked really impressed because they were name brand and he seemed honored. We told them we had more to bring next year and he was excited about that too,” Irwin said “When we passed them out to the players, they immediately put them on. They were walking around with their jerseys and showing them off. When we took the pictures they were all talking about how neat they were. After they had their first practice, they all contacted me saying how they had used them and how lucky they were to have them. The best part was when they first saw them and started smiling because of how happy they were.”