Team Tucker Family Foundation

The mission of Team Tucker Family Foundation is to support families of children who are battling life-threatening diseases by providing personalized experiences and funds that significantly improve their mental health while reducing their financial stress.

WHO WE SERVE: Team Tucker supports families of children battling life-threatening illnesses. We find ways to bring joy and relief to siblings and parents, as well as the patient.

WHAT WE OFFER: Team Tucker offers financial and/or emotional support suited to each family’s situation and needs.

WHERE WE HELP: Team Tucker is currently able to help children being treated at pediatric hospitals located in the Twin Cities, Rochester, and Iowa City.

WHAT MAKES TEAM TUCKER UNIQUE: Our founder experienced her son’s battle with bone cancer and the impact it had on him, her two daughters, and her extended family. She knows that a promise of a distant prize did not have an effective impact on the anxiety and depression her family was experiencing. As a single mom, she also realized how much financial support is needed while losing time at work to help her son fight for his life. Team Tucker provides whatever will bring the most joy to the whole family while the patient is battling so that everyone can reconnect, temporarily escape the sadness and fear, and regather their strength to keep fighting. Although Tucker did not battle long, Team Tucker understands most children do. Therefore, we offer to develop a relationship with the families and stay by their sides throughout their journeys. 

OUR HISTORY

The Team Tucker Family Foundation honors the life and legacy of Tucker Helstrom.

Tucker loved sports, school, and time playing with and looking after his two younger sisters. He made friends with everyone he met and had a keen ability to notice and support those in need, young or old. Just before his ninth birthday, Tucker was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a very rare bone cancer. So much was taken from him: time with his sisters, cousins and friends during long hospital stays; recess, running, baseball and hockey; and eventually his right leg. Despite the amputation and multiple lung surgeries, the cancer spread and took his life on July 2, 2016. 

During Tucker’s intense 8-month battle, his mom, Dana, learned first-hand the agonizing challenges faced by young cancer patients and their siblings. However, she also appreciated how much she, Tucker, and her daughters benefited from the support of their large and tight-knit family, along with support from their school and local sports organizations. Dana realized that this type of deep and broad support was not available to many of the other patients at Masonic Children’s Hospital, who were often enduring treatment far from their homes, families, and friends. Tucker was actually the first to notice this, saying that when he was better he would come back to play with the kids in the hospital who did not get visitors. He wanted to help distract them from their pain and loneliness, as his friends and family did during their frequent visits.

Tucker never got the chance to fulfill this plan, but his mom felt compelled to carry Tucker’s love and joy forward by finding a way to help others. In 2017, Dana Anderson-Helstrom created Team Tucker: Play Laugh Love, now known as the Team Tucker Family Foundation. 

Initially, Dana was in too much pain to walk back into children’s hospitals, so the organization focused on providing baseball opportunities and healthy meals. But Dana knew her son had wanted to help sick kids who were suffering like he had, and she wanted to help the siblings and parents that suffered like she and her daughters had. In 2018, Team Tucker introduced the program Tucker’s Very Important Patients. The very first VIP, Logan, was experiencing a long term medical stay in Minneapolis. His mom was by his side during his treatments for liver failure, but they were far from the rest of the family back in North Dakota. Team Tucker made a visit from Logan’s dad, siblings and grandma possible by providing gas cards, hotel stays, and food along the way. 

Word about Team Tucker spread amongst patient families, medical staff, and social workers. Now, at the end of 2025, we are proud to say we have helped over 171 VIP families.

Despite all of his suffering, Tucker envisioned what he could do to help other sick kids find joy and strength in togetherness. In his honor, Team Tucker will continue to provide customized care and support for children and families throughout their battle with life-threatening illnesses.