About Us
Our Mission
BounceBack Kids™ is a Section 501(c) (3) nonprofit whose mission is to bring together and serve kids with life-challenging medical conditions to enrich the lives of participants and their families.
Whom We Serve
Participants in BounceBack Kids are children who have a life-challenging medical condition, range in age from 3-21 and have a doctor’s permission to participate in physical activities. Our current participants have cancer, sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, asthma and other chronic illnesses. We provide services not only to the child who is ill but also to his/her siblings and parents/guardians.
What We Do
BounceBack Kids Programs include Sports, Recreational and Social Activities, and Support Services.
Our Sports programming includes basketball, fitness, and golf. Our sports activities are conducted by trained coaches and instructors with a talent and dedication to the sport and our participants. We offer basketball skills sessions with Coach Mike Zeillmann and fitness training with Coach Ari Zandman-Zeman owner of Rubberbanditz at the Emily K Center. Twice a year we offer golf lessons at the Washington Duke Golf Club driving range. Beginning Summer 2011, we will begin to offer activities in the new Levin Jewish Community Center in Durham.
Our Recreational and Social Activities include attending college and professional sporting events, visiting local museums, cooking classes, arts and crafts activities, drumming lessons, and attending local theater productions. Many of our activities include community meals and friendly games. We enjoy time together at many local venues, including SEEDS and Maple View Farms. Beginning Summer 2011, we will begin to offer activities in the new Levin Jewish Community Center in Durham.
Support Services are a spectrum of special services. We provide specific support when a child is re-hospitalized, including but not limited to lending iPads pre-populated with books and games and giving FunBags (filled with items such as books, magazines, and stuffed animals) to the children.
We also offer resources such as the College Planning Guide and The BounceBack Kids Cookbook; A Recipe Collection by Families, Friends and Famous Chefs. The key feature to these services is that we provide free year-round services for the participant, siblings and parents.
All our families receive the materials we develop free of charge.
Our History
Dr. Henry Friedman, co-director of the Brain Tumor Center at Duke, and Bill Jessup, a successful North Carolina businessman, wanted to start a program offering kids who had received treatment for brain cancer a physical and social outlet outside traditional post-hospitalization services. After deciding upon basketball skills sessions, they brought in Mike Zeillmann, a well-regarded basketball coach, and Hoop Dreams Basketball Academy was born. Shortly after the program started, the founders realized that offering other forms of fitness and fun would benefit the kids, their siblings and their parents. Then other organizations started offering the program tickets to sporting events, and the organizers realized the value of these kids socializing together. The program subsequently expanded to children with other types of cancer and chronic illnesses. The program now includes siblings in all activities. We also added support services and increased the number of social activities offered. In recognition of the expansion of its programs and services, the organization changed its name in 2008 to BounceBack Kids.
Thanks for bringing back life and a sense of normalcy to my son and our family.
-Mother of Participant
