Building Blocks for Kids

Building Blocks for Kids envisions a community where the needs of all children, regardless of their challenges, are being met. Our mission is to provide support, resources, scholarships, and hope to families who have children with physical, emotional, and/or developmental challenges. Building Blocks for Kids was founded in 2003 and inspired by a little girl named Sydni Quinlan. Sydni had many challenges because of an unknown and undiagnosed genetic disease that took days to discover and that caused ammonia to build up on her brain and cause irreparable brain damage. What followed was a liver transplant before the age of 2 months. But the damage was done. Her primary diagnosis was now cerebral palsy and her needs were many. One opportunity to help improve her outcome would not be considered by insurance but was, according to her doctors, the only hope left. BB4K founders-to-be began by raising funds to give her that chance at a better quality of life and then continued to build the organization to give more children the opportunities that they might not otherwise have. What started out as help for one child has now provided several million dollars in scholarships for more than 850 children like Sydni and allowed their families to find the hope and help.

BB4K currently supports children and their families through the following programs: 1. Scholarships to cover expenses related to therapy, hearing and communication devices, minor home modifications, medical equipment and supplies, displacement costs, and more. Our goal has been to provide approximately $100,000 in scholarships to approximately 50-60 children/year. 2. Landing Zones, a new program designed to provide an important, safe, and fun piece of equipment for all BB4K kids. A partnership with a local commercial furniture company allows us to provide each Landing Zone for a cost of less than $65 each. A comparable piece purchased elsewhere would cost upwards of $400-$500. Since this partnership began in December, nearly 40 Landing Zones have been delivered to BB4K families throughout the tri-state area. Our goal will be 40-50 per year. 3. Courageous Kids Family Weekend Camp provides a weekend respite for kids with special challenges and their families. Each of those weekends is geared toward families dealing with a specific diagnosis which allows for sharing of resources, success stories, judgement free zones for both the child with the diagnosis as well as siblings of those children, and a free weekend full of fun adventures and experiences for the whole family. BB4K is proud to sponsor our first Courageous Kids camp for Children with Apraxia this fall. This camp will provide respite for 30-35 families this year. 4. Dance With My Daddy is an event created more than a decade ago by a father of a child with special needs. It is a free evening for fathers/father figures to bring their special child(ren) for an evening of fun and bonding. It includes dinner, dancing, crafts, a photo booth, a visit from the Critter Guy and more. It is looked forward to by dads and kids each and every year. This year, BB4K is partnering with the organization for this event and in 2023, the dance will be fully sponsored by Building Blocks for Kids. Dance With My Daddy entertains about 40-50 dads and kids each year. 5. Support and equipment exchange takes place via our private Facebook page for BB4K families only. Parents share resources, advice, pain, support, events and so much more there.