BOISE, Idaho — Parker Pannell is a 13-year-old student at South Junior High in Boise. Just like any other kid, he's navigating his way through middle school.
He loves getting outside and being active. He also loves art. Painting is one of his passions.
"I love art, I've been doing art since 5 or 6," he said.
But, right now, it's tough for Parker to paint. He's dealing with a serious health challenge. He is mysteriously losing his eyesight, and doctors can't figure out why.
"Around three days before Christmas I woke up, and at first I thought it was when you rub your eyes and it goes black for a second. I thought it was that, but it wouldn't go away. I told my mom about it," Parker said.
His mom Carly was stumped too.
"Yeah, it came out of nowhere. He woke up one day, I think it was in one eye," she said. "The next day, it was in the next eye."
They went to several doctors in our area, but there were no definitive answers. They were referred to a specialty clinic in Salt Lake City. Parker is trying different medications.
"They have been amazing in Utah. We are trying several different things, but we don't have a prognosis yet," Carly said.
Parker is a huge history buff.
"I love history, I've always been interested in history, like the presidents and stuff, in 4th grade it took me ten minutes to memorize the presidents in order, it's a talent of mine," he said.
Parker went on to spout out all the American presidents, in order. He really knows his stuff.
He told us his dream is to go to Washington DC to see all the White House, and all the monuments. He wants to see all that presidential history.
"He's always wanted to see DC, New York," Carly said. "We had a family reach out to us, they had heard about it and they wanted to facilitate a trip for him, so he could see all that before he might not be able to."
A Go Fund Me was started for Parker's big trip.
"It was crazy," Parker said. "Within the first few nights we hit a thousand dollars. I thought, how can it get better from here? Then a week later, we hit ten thousand, and I was like woah, that's just crazy to me. It happened in such a short period of time and then it was people we don't even know. They are just generous people."
The Pannell family decided to take the trip as soon as possible. Parker, his parents, and his two brothers, flew back east a couple weeks ago. They toured New York and DC. It was a dream come true.
Carly said she is so grateful her son had this incredible opportunity.
"Oh, I'm overwhelmed. It's been too much, I feel like I've done nothing but cry for weeks," she said. "I just want to thank everyone who donated. It's amazing because I don't know most of them, it's such an outpouring of support and donations. It's been so heartwarming, and we're just so thankful."
Parker is back at school after his big trip, and he's keeping a positive attitude about what is happening.
"Hopefully we can restore all my vision," he said. "That would be dream come true for me, so I really hope, I really hope."
He also wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped make his dream trip possible.
"I don't know like half of you guys, and you were generous enough to donate a lot of money to me which is really cool," Parker said. "Thank you."
His mom tells us his sight has stabilized for now. His central vision is still damaged, but deteriorating spots in his peripheral vision seem to have healed. They will go back to Salt Lake in April for more testing.
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