On this day we wear jerseys in honor of Jackson Sparks. Jackson was an 8-year-old boy who had an unmatched passion for life. A 3rd grader at Clarendon Elementary, he lived in Mukwonago, WI with his parents Sheri and Aaron and his older brother Tucker. Jackson and Tucker loved Baseball and had a passion for the game. They played in their backyard, they played baseball video games, they cheered on their local team and they also played baseball competitively with the Waukesha Blazers.
On November 21st, while marching with his baseball team in the annual Waukesha Christmas Parade, the unthinkable happened. At 4:30pm, a man in an SUV plowed through the parade, striking participants and bystanders. The attack ultimately killed six people and injured over 60 others. The driver of the SUV struck both Jackson and Tucker in this violent act that would change the Sparks Family and the Waukesha community forever. Both boys sustained severe injuries and were rushed to the Intensive Care unit at Children’s Hospital in hope of a miracle. Jackson’s older brother Tucker, by what the Sparks Family knows was a miracle of God, survived the attack and eventually healed from his injuries. Jackson’s injuries, however, were incredibly severe and he could not overcome them. A sweet 8-year-old boy who loved baseball and his family succumbed to his injuries and sadly passed away on Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021.
Through the darkest moments in the Sparks Family’s lives, however, they were never alone. In the days leading up to Jackson’s funeral, communities from all over the country rallied to support the victims of the attack and their families. The whole country came together in a very unique way for Jackson and his family. His mother had a very special request that children attending the funeral on Thursday, December 2nd would wear their baseball jerseys to honor Jackson’s passion and love for baseball. The community, however, had much bigger plans.
Todd Ahrens, a Wisconsin native, created a social media hashtag #jerseys4jackson, and requested that communities everywhere would wear their jerseys on the day of Jackson’s burial to honor him. The hashtag spread with the power of social media, and thousands of people wore baseball jerseys, sharing pictures captioned “Jerseys for Jackson” on the day of his burial. Baseball organizations like the Milwaukee Brewers, the Milwaukee Milkmen, and hundreds of other organizations all over the country showed their support by wearing jerseys. Even schools and workplaces took part in the campaign, posting pictures in their jerseys and fueling support from all over the globe. Jackson, and his pure and innocent love for the game of baseball was honored in a way that brought the entire country together in solidarity.
