Parker Project’s mission is to help alleviate the financial stresses experienced by families coping with childhood cancer, allowing them to focus on the child’s quality of life.
Parker Angelus Diaz was born in West Covina, California on October 5, 2000. He was raised by his father, the founder of Parker Project, Daniel Diaz and his grandparents Jose and Gloria Diaz. In 2006 Parker’s grandfather retired and decided to move the family to San Antonio, Texas seeking a better educational system. Parker was a happy child with an old soul, as is the case most often when children are raised by their grandparents. Parker was bilingual (Spanish and English), liked martial arts, and video games.
In 2010 Parker began to have what his family thought were “growing pains” in his legs. Parker’s father and grandparents sought medical attention from many places; general practitioners, orthopedic doctors, and specialist to attempt to figure out what the pains were attributed to. On February 9, 2011 while checking into a specialists office the nurses found that despite Parker feeling normal, his blood pressure was dangerously high. He was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. Parker and his family spent 2 weeks at Methodist Children’s hospital, and, after many tests, doctors found a tumor on his adrenal gland the size on an orange. He was diagnosed with Adrenal Carcinoma – a cancer that is very rare for someone at such a young age.
Parker had surgery to remove the tumor, and with aggressive chemotherapy he did get better for short time. A few months later the cancer grew back. There were a few days during each month when the chemotherapy cycled out of Parker’s body where he could do normal things, like shopping at Target. His family grew to truly appreciate those good times as they were few and far between.
On March 13, 2012, after 13 months of chemotherapy and radiation Parker lost his fight to cancer.
Those 13 months were a blur for the Diaz family, but their number one priority was to get Parker better,
make him happy, and make him comfortable. Spending weeks at a time in the hospital for
chemotherapy treatments became a normal part of life. Parker’s father would go to work during the day
while his grandparents watched over him in the hospital, and then return in the evening to shower,
sleep, and repeat the next day. Getting any member of the family to leave the hospital for rest was
nearly impossible. The Diaz family’s life was consumed by making Parker comfortable which left a lot of
day-to-day tasks and activities difficult or unfinished. Vehicle maintenance, home cleanliness, personal
hygiene and health all suffered for during the 13-month period of helping Parker fight cancer.
10 years after Parker’s passing, Dan Diaz reflected on his time during those 13 months and thought
about the many families he had met that couldn’t spend the night while their child was having
chemotherapy treatments because they couldn’t afford childcare for their other children at home. The
parents who couldn’t afford to take time off from work because their family’s livelihood and survival
depended on it. He thought of the families that didn’t have transportation and had to take their child
with cancer on the bus for hours to make it to the chemotherapy treatments.
Parker Project was founded by Dan Diaz with those families in mind. Helping families with normal day to
day financial burdens to improve the quality of life for the child battling cancer.
You may apply to gain funding from the Parker Project via the application tab above. Every application will be reviewed by the board directly and taken into consideration as if it were for their own child.
No, we are a fully inclusive foundation here to support families battling all type of pediatric cancer. We will consider all applications so long as the benefactor is below the age of 18 years old.
The process is typically 14-30 days from the submission date of your application. We strive to review all; applications in timely manner as we know that funding is beyond time sensitive in these situations.
Yes. Unfortunately due to the amount of fraud in the fundraising industry for medical assistance we require a certification provided by your child's oncologist attached to the original application for your child to be considered.
This ensures the funds raised are distributed to the families who truly need them.
Depending on the initiative being funded we will in most cases directly fund it for example fully paid for trips to Disney, vehicles for families, flights, housing payments etc.
In some cases where families need to be provided funds directly they will be distributed via wire.
Parker Project, Inc is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization recognized by the IRS.
Federal Identification Number (EIN): 85-3871929