Sofia Palacios walked hand-in-hand with a professional player onto the pitch at Levi’s Stadium, joining dozens of Bay Area kids selected as World Cup mascot children.

This story was produced by El Tímpano, a civic media organization serving and covering the Bay Area’s Latino and Mayan immigrant communities. The original version of the story can be found here.

On the morning of June 25, a 10-year-old Oaklander named Sofia “Sofi” Palacios was preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

She had a long day ahead of her, and began by eating a traditional Chilean torta hojarasca, while a teen Netflix show played in the background. A pastel-colored banner from her birthday celebration just two days earlier hung on the wall behind her. After Sofi finished eating, her mom, Alejandra Sarmiento, brushed her freshly washed brown hair before the big event: serving as a player escort for the World Cup.

During the pregame ceremony of every FIFA World Cup match, professional players walk out hand-in-hand with kids between the ages of six and 12 who are commonly referred to as “player escorts” or “mascot children.” The tradition dates back to 2002 when UNICEF and FIFA partnered to “promote the right of all children to healthy recreation.”

This year, the program is sponsored by Quaker Oats, which partnered with Common Goal, a collective of soccer-based community organizations that spans the globe, to find children for dozens of matches in the U.S. and Canada. Common Goal local member organizations identified 1,452 kids in underserved communities across all host cities in the U.S., and 286 kids in Canada—with additional partner Canada SCORES—to serve as player escorts in 79 matches.

“I’m nervous but also really excited,” Sofi said in Spanish. “More of my friends, and one good friend of mine, are going. I’m also really happy because everyone is going to be watching me.”

For the first time in 32 years, the United States co-hosted the World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico, with the Bay Area hosting six World Cup matches at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara over the past several weeks. Soccer Without Borders, as well as America Scores Bay Area and Street Soccer U.S.A., were the Common Goal organizations in the region that participated in the player escort program this year. Ben Gucciardi, Founder and Director of Special Projects for Soccer Without Borders, said the non-profit will have taken about 55 kids to the World Cup as player escorts by the end of the tournament’s run.

“There’s a certain number of allotments for each game,” said Gucciardi. “Soccer Without Borders gets to select some participants, and then those two organizations also select some participants, and the three of us all go.”

Gucciardi said the selection process for the kids started in February and March. He said the organization held several four-to-five-hour long day clinics for kids, which incorporated soccer, team building, and nutritional education—a key component of the Quaker program. Once a child attended one clinic, they were eligible to participate as player escorts.

From there, he said, the organization looked at how many slots they had and communicated with families of children who attended the one-day clinics to see if they were a good fit. They considered whether they were able to commit to the times and dates, as well as if they were comfortable with going through all the security measures required by FIFA, Gucciardi said.

Because Soccer Without Borders primarily serves newcomer immigrant children, he said, that did limit some families from participating. “We try to be pretty thoughtful about people who wouldn’t feel comfortable having to provide all the security information, or interacting so much with the government and those processes,” Gucciardi said. “It’s a high degree of scrutiny about everything and with the current climate, we didn’t want to subject people to that for whom it wouldn’t be comfortable.”

Sofi, who came to the United States from Chile two years ago with her family, didn’t have much interest in soccer when she was back home. But she found a newfound love for the game after participating in a Soccer Without Borders summer camp last year.

When Alejandra Sarmiento’s husband got the call about Sofi’s selection, Sarmiento remembers that Sofi “was super excited because participating in the World Cup was what really called to her,” she said in Spanish. “And that she would get to see the actual stadium and get to know the players. That was what excited her the most.”

Sofi’s escort date was set for Thursday, June 25, and she would be escorting a player from the Australia vs. Paraguay match in Santa Clara. While she had watched some World Cup matches, she had only recently seen child player escorts on TV in a Mexico game. Even though she did not know who she would be walking out with, she said she hoped to walk out with a player from Paraguay.

“They’re the only ones from Latin America,” she said in Spanish.

On the morning of the match, Sofi and her family would follow the same protocol as all participating kids: Sofi would be dropped off at a meeting location in Oakland hours before the game. From there, she and the participating kids would be taken to the stadium together by bus. After arriving, they would prepare for the big event, do the walk, and watch the game in the stadium until it was over.

Before leaving that Thursday morning to meet everyone at 11:30 a.m., Sofi gathered her essential items in a small backpack. She stuffed fidget toys, water, and a ziploc bag with lip gloss, blush, and other makeup products into the bag’s large zipper compartment. She said goodbye to her 5-year-old brother, Diego, and hugged her dad before heading out with her mom to the dropoff location at Oakland International High School.

Coaches and staff from Soccer Without Borders greeted Sofi and others as they arrived. Sofi examined the prepped Adidas bags that she and other kids received to take on the trip, which included a branded jersey, shorts, and knee-high socks. The kids changed into blue Quaker Oats shirts, and played around with one another in the school’s courtyard. Before she got on the bus, Sofi’s dad and brother surprised her and said goodbye once more.

At 12:30 p.m., the kids piled into a large school bus. During the hour-long ride, Sofi sat with two friends, and the three joked and burst into KATSEYE songs along the way. They asked for Gatorade and snacks from their coaches every 20 minutes. Once they saw the stadium within their line of sight, the kids screamed. “That’s so big!” Sofi said, wide-eyed. “This is like a dream!,” another child said.

After they filed off the bus, officials from FIFA greeted them at the entrance and snapped green wristbands on the kids’ hands. It was still five hours before kickoff.

“Part of the reason they get there so early is to be able to do a walk-through, so they understand the different components. It’s almost like a practice graduation ceremony,” Gucciardi said. “It’s a combination of security, making sure everybody has time to get properly equipped and then oriented to do a walk-through of what the thing is going to look like. And then they have a lot of downtime.”

Back in Oakland, the Palacios family invited neighbors, friends, and colleagues to watch Sofi walk out onto the pitch. Guests arrived with muffins and others brought sodas ahead of the 7 p.m. kickoff time. When the pregame ceremony began, everyone turned to the TV. The camera moved quickly down the line of players and their child escorts, who wore matching branded jerseys and shorts. For a split second, the camera caught Sofi’s face, smiling, holding the hand of Julio Enciso, No. 19. from Paraguay. The whole party erupted into cheers.

“I’m happy for her,” said Sarmiento, who was grinning as she watched Sofi on the screen. “My family in Chile was also watching—her uncles, my mom, too—so we’re all so happy. Just imagine! She will never forget that she was part of a World Cup, and that she was on the field for a game.”

As they watched the match, the party ate Chilean completos—hot dogs made of mashed “palta” avocado, diced tomatoes, and mayonnaise. They also played the game back on their phones to record the moment Sofi appeared on TV.

“The opportunity to participate in a World Cup is unique—especially one where Chile isn’t competing as a team,” her dad, Patricio Palacios, said. “Yet she ended up representing the country on the field in her own way, so we are incredibly proud of that.”

After the match, Sarmiento waited for the call to pick up Sofi, who arrived at 11 p.m. As she got off the bus, she ran into her mom’s arms, telling her about her day. Despite the late hour, Sofi talked excitedly about walking out with Enciso and how she and her friend bickered because Sofi was rooting for Paraguay and her friend for Australia.

She said her favorite part was the moment just before walking out onto the pitch. “There’s a tunnel and we could talk with the players,” Sofi said. “But number 19 didn’t speak to me because he was very nervous; you could see the nervousness on his face. The one who did speak to me was the player in front, who asked how I was and what my name was,” she said. “My friend Elizabeth wished a player good luck, and he told her, ‘I’ll win for you!’”