On a quiet, overcast morning on the east side of Indianapolis, 13-year-old Hope Thomas was crossing the street to catch her school bus when a Jeep suddenly struck her in the crosswalk. The crash left her with serious injuries and a long recovery ahead.
But just a few months later, Hope defied the odds and took her place as a Junior Chef in the World Food Championships — showing a resilience as unwavering as her passion for cooking.
The day before the accident, Thomas received good news -— she had been promoted from sous chef to chef and would participate with her classmates at the Perfect Bite competition and potentially the World Food Championships.
All of that changed in the blink of an eye on her way to practice one morning.
Thomas was struck at the intersection of Kitley Ave. and East Washington St. prior to boarding the bus on June 26, 2024. A driver hit her, allegedly ignoring the stop arm. Thomas was taken to Riley Children’s Hospital and treated for multiple broken bones and internal injuries. The woman driving the Jeep was criminally charged with an OWI for her actions.
“She just found out that she’d been moved up to chef … that very next morning was her accident,” said Tommy Reddicks, CEO of Paramount Schools of Excellence, who hosts the program Thomas participates in. “We were all just kind of gobsmacked.”
Despite the tragedy that unfolded that day, Thomas grew stronger, and so did her desire to get back into the kitchen. Reddicks asked her mom if she’d be interested in competing, despite not being able to stand out of her wheelchair for extended periods of time.
“We had Hope at our first Junior Chef practice in the fall,” Reddicks said. “She came in on a wheelchair, and we were thrilled. That has kind of morphed into Hope getting better and better to where she was standing up during some of those practices.”
Thomas competed with her team against 23 other Junior Chef teams at the World Food Championships on Nov. 8, where she and her teams placed right in the middle of the pack, Reddicks said.
“At the World Food Championships, she stood most of the whole time and assisted,” Reddicks said. “They were the second highest scoring team of the teams we put into the World Food Championships.”
As she continues to recover, Thomas continues to draw inspiration rather than fear from her accident and seeks to channel that energy into her creativity in cooking.
“I try and inspire myself,” she said. “I just really enjoy cooking, so I was thinking if I could do it, I should do it, because it’s something I like to do.”
Despite all her work as a chef, Thomas is unsure if she will pursue culinary arts, citing that she is only in eighth grade and the world is her oyster.
“I’m just keeping all of my options open,” Thomas said.
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Contact Health & Environmental Reporter Hanna Rauworth at 317-762-7854 or follow her on Instagram at @hanna.rauworth.
