Support Brain Health for Kids

We believe every child deserves the opportunity to grow, learn, and play in ways that support healthy brain development.

Your support helps provide education, resources, and awareness so families, coaches, and communities can make informed choices around youth sports and brain health.

Sports play an important role in childhood, building teamwork, confidence, resilience, and leadership. We support kids’ love of sports while promoting age-appropriate participation, safer play, and informed decision-making that puts long-term brain health first.

By focusing on education and awareness, we help communities support healthy development today while protecting kids’ futures.

Many supporters at today’s event are taking the Protect Young Brains Pledge. Your donation helps turn those shared values into education, outreach, and action that benefits kids everywhere.

Why This Matters

This work is deeply personal.

The Mac Parkman Foundation was founded in honor of Mac Parkman, a bright and passionate young athlete whose life was deeply affected by repetitive brain injuries that impacted his mental health.

Alongside young athletes like Patrick Risha, whose legacy now drives education and advocacy through his family’s leadership of the CTE Awareness Foundation, Mac’s story reminds us why better information, awareness, and safer approaches to play matter so deeply.

At the time, everyone followed the rules. What was missing was clear, science-based information about how repeated head impacts can affect brain health over time, especially in developing brains.

Today, we know more. And that knowledge gives us the opportunity and responsibility to do better.

Your support helps ensure kids can enjoy sports, build confidence, and grow strong, while families and communities have the information they need to support safer, healthier play.

About The Mac Parkman Foundation

The Mac Parkman Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to raising awareness, advancing research, and supporting individuals affected by Repeated Head Impacts (RHI) and Repeated Blast Exposure (RBE).

We work to safeguard brain health across the lifespan, from children and student-athletes to veterans, by promoting education, early identification, and access to innovative brain health solutions. Through advocacy and community engagement, we strive to create safer environments in sports and military service and to ensure a healthier future for all.

Supporting Brain Health in Sports For Kids

By The Mac Parkman Foundation

Supporting Brain Health in Sports For Kids

Protecting Young Brains. Preserve Futures.