Our Mission
Like a Child strives to celebrate and preserve the joy, curiosity and innocence of childhood by supporting organizations which provide resources for children and families to achieve their highest potential.
Cody's Bio
Cody Zeller is nearly impossible to ignore both on and off the basketball court—not only because of his seven-foot frame—but also because of his natural wit and contagious sense of humor, which has captivated fans across the country. Most recently, Zeller played a crucial role in the Miami Heat’s 2023 NBA Finals run, providing toughness and a team-first attitude. Before his time in Miami, he also spent eight seasons in Charlotte and a year in Portland.
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Kicks for Kids
Kicks for Kids is a fundraising and awareness campaign to highlight non-profit organizations close to Cody’s heart who are doing good work in the community. With design assistance from children at the organizations and led by Charlotte artist Ryan Bare, each of Cody’s game shoes are customized. After wearing the shoes in game, Cody donates each pair to the organization to use for fundraising purposes. In addition, each group receives a $15,000 grant from Like A Child.
During the 2019-20 season, the following organizations participated in Kicks for Kids:
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Carolinas, Hemby Health Children’s Hospital, TAPS, Riley Hospital for Children
This season, A Child’s Place was the December participant and the shoes were a nod to Cody’s favorite holiday movie, The Grinch. Through the grant and donation of shoes, A Child’s Place will be able to provide 150 families with three meals a day for a week.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Carolinas
The Kicks for Kids program kicked off in November and paid tribute to Cody’s former teammate Kemba Walker at his first game back in Charlotte.
Kemba was an advocate for BBBS and personally mentored four children when he lived in Charlotte. Each mentee helped design the shoes by creating images and writing messages of what Kemba means to them.
Hemby Health Children’s Hospital
The stars of these shoes where the patients at Hemby! Each child gave Cody his or her autograph to proudly display on his shoes.
In February, Cody honored his home state of Indiana and the kids from Riley Hospital for Children, Indiana’s only comprehensive children’s hospital.
When Cody laced up his sneakers for a January game in Charlotte, he honored the surviving family of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Girard “Jerry” Gass Jr. and the more than 90,000 military surviving family members who are part of TAPS.
