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The 11th Annual Power of Children Awards application process is now open. To date, 50 winners from 33 cities have raised over $10 million for their projects and directly impacted 1,719,685 people around the world. Will you be the next to be recognized? If you, or someone you know in grades 6-11, are making an extraordinary difference in the lives of other, nominate them for the Power of Children Awards at childrensmuseum.org/poca.
In our latest blog post, 2014 Children's Museum of Indianapolis Power of Children Awards recipient, Tatum Parker, highlights her organization and the efforts she is making to provide comfort to children with cancer.
Tatum’s Bags of Fun is a non-profit organization where we give every child diagnosed with cancer in Indiana a backpack filled to the top with age appropriate games, toys, crafts, and any other activities that are suitable for a hospital bed. I was honored to be a 2014 Power of Children Awards (POCA) winner and the grant I received has made a great impact on our organization. I have used the money to help make the bags that the children receive. Each bag is valued around $350 and about 400 are given out each year. The cost adds up extremely quick.
The feeling of winning the award was incredible. I was chosen along with five other fantastic young entrepreneurs to receive this empowering award. To know that we were chosen out of many applications from across the nation was a great feeling. Being able to be a part of POCA was amazing and it was an experience I will never forget.
Along with the grant, and the incredible feeling of winning the award, POCA allowed us to get the word out about Tatum’s Bags of Fun. I was able to tell my story in front of a large audience and I was given the opportunity to do TV interviews. Also, having my story shared in the POCA awards section at the museum for other children to see every day is awesome! These opportunities to share my story and information about my organization will help me tremendously.
POCA is a great program because it shines a spot light on kids in the community who do amazing things who normally don’t get recognized. They helped my organization a lot and I thank them for that.
Learn more about Tatum’s Bags of Fun and watch her video.
Photo: Tatum Parker, 2014 POCA winner.
