By Joshua Koch
Public Communications
The first time you meet Tatum Thomas, there’s a good chance you’re going to get a big hug around your neck and a gleaming smile from ear-to-ear.
“His joy is contagious,” Tamia, Tatum’s mother, said. “He reminds me every day how life is so beautiful when it’s just simple and we can go about the world and just enjoy our lives.”
Tatum, a first-grader at Humble ISD’s River Pines Elementary, was born with Down syndrome.
“He meets no strangers,” River Pines Elementary Principal Rachel Dunn said. “You just see the love and the joy bursting from him every day. Every time he walks in the building, he walks in with a smile, he’s happy and everyone knows him.”
During the summer, the National Down Syndrome Society called for photos to be submitted of children, teens and adults with down syndrome for their annual NDSS Times Square Video Presentation.
More than 2,600 entries were submitted from around the world and Tatum’s photo, sent in by his aunt Johnnie Braxton, was one of 500 that was selected to be featured in the video on Saturday, September 6.
“When [Johnnie] told me they were going to feature his picture, I just started crying,” Tamia said. “Because everybody’s going to see my baby. This is the sweet face I see every single day. This is down syndrome. This is what it is.”
Tamia holds up her phone with the photo of Tatum that will be featured in the NDSS Times Square Video Presentation on Saturday, September 6.
The photos will represent all 50 states and 11 countries. The video will be shown above Dos Caminos Restaurant in Father Duffy Square on two jumbotron screens.
“It’s an incredible experience for my son’s face to be plastered on a platform like that,” Tamia said. “It’s surreal.”
The video presentation will play from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time (8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Central) and kickoff the New York City Buddy Walk, which takes place at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park on Saturday, September 6. The video will be livestreamed on the NDSS Facebook page.
“Now the whole world gets to know him,” Dunn said. “We’re just so proud of that.”
Since 1995, the National Buddy Walk Program has been the premier Down syndrome awareness, advocacy and peer-to-peer fundraising program in the world.
It was created by the NDSS to promote acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome.
“People with Down syndrome are capable, they are valuable, they are worthy of love just like any other person,” Tamia said about what she hopes Tatum being a part of this national event shows others. “Awareness is the first step for inclusion. The best thing is to knock down stereotypes and shine light on the beauty of diversity for people with Down syndrome.”
Tamia is intentional on getting Tatum involved, whether that be the Houston Ballet’s adaptive dance program, baseball, or Cub Scouts.
“I just want him to be included in every single thing, so he can have a chance just like any other child,” Tamia said. “I don’t handicap him.”
When Tamia was three months pregnant with Tatum, she had a test done called amniocentesis, which is a prenatal diagnostic procedure to detect genetic disorders.
It was from this test that Tamia found out Tatum would be born with Down syndrome.
“It was really scary,” Tamia said. “Because no one in my immediate family has Down syndrome. I was aware of what it was but I didn’t know how to approach it. I did as much research as I could. I told my family about it and they gave me their support.
“I had this image in my head of who my child would be. I felt at that moment I lost the child that I could possibly have had, but I didn’t. I gained a beautiful and amazing little boy.”
Once Tatum was born, at six months old Tamia started him in physical therapy. At one-year-old she began speech therapy.
At around two-years-old, Tatum also underwent heart surgery to repair a small hole in his heart. The surgery was successful but he continues to see a cardiologist yearly for checkups.
Today, Tatum attends River Pines Elementary where he has been a student in Shawna Crankshaw’s applied skills class for his kindergarten and now first grade year.
“She knows exactly how to handle certain situations regarding him because she told me she has a son who is autistic and he’s 21,” Tamia said. “So she knows how to handle it from a parent and a teacher standpoint.”
In his time in class, Crankshaw has seen Tatum grow a love for writing, learning letters and sounds and anything hands on during class.
“He’s always willing to work and wanting to learn anything,” Crankshaw said. “He’s becoming more independent from last year to this year. He’s come a long way.”
River Pines Elementary applied skills teacher Shawna Crankshaw, Tamia and Tatum Thomas and River Pines Elementary Principal Rachel Dunn are photographed on campus in August.