Tatum Parker

Project: Tatum’s Bags of Fun

Tatum Parker knows what it is like to be a kid stuck in the hospital. The Indianapolis, Indiana native battled cancer twice and came out a winner both times. However, the treatment that she received left her, like many other young patients, feeling weak.

While recovering from her treatments Tatum was bored. Even though her parents and family visited her, which helped her cope with the boredom of lying in bed, Tatum knew that not everyone was as lucky. Sometimes children who are sick don’t have family or friends who can visit them as frequently as they would like. Tatum wanted to make sure they had something to do.

She developed a project called Tatum’s Bags of Fun. Her goal was to give a bag to every child diagnosed with cancer in Indiana. The bags include about $350 worth of age-appropriate games, toys, and activities ranging from Leapsters, iPods, and Nintendo DS units to books, crafts, and movies.

Even though she suffered a cancer relapse herself, Tatum helped bring smiles to nearly 2,000 children at Riley Hospital for Children and Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, both in Indianapolis; IU Health North in Carmel, Indiana; Memorial Hospital of South Bend, Indiana; and Proton Beam Therapy Center in Bloomington, Indiana.

Tatum also developed a Kids’ Board that helped her with fund-raising, project management, and delivery of the bags. The teenagers that made up the Kids’ Board not only helped expand Tatum’s project, but also learned how to develop their own community service projects.

Since she had spent so much time with doctors and nurses as both a patient and a philanthropist, Tatum became interested in the medical field. Though only an 8th-grader at Westlane Middle School in Indianapolis in 2014, she knew she wanted to work in a field that involved helping others.

Tatum’s Bags of Fun was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, and Indiana University men’s basketball coach Tom Crean chose the organization as his charity of choice for the Infiniti Coaches Charity Challenge. But Tatum didn’t let the attention interfere with her quest for new and interesting ways to raise money for cancer research and have a positive impact on children with cancer. She started a triathlon team and also began an annual “shave-a-thon” to raise money.

The winner of several awards for her service work, Tatum maintained that age should have nothing to do with what a person can accomplish. “Children should realize that they can do anything they put their minds to. They have the same opportunities and abilities to make an impact as adults do.”