A program with a purpose in tribute to founder’s fallen daughter
Rebuild Yourself Inc. returns to the Osceola County Veterans Library this September, empowering teens ages 12–18 to conquer the new school year.
“I never wanted a child not to feel like they belonged,” said Founder Cynthia Borgwing.
Borgwing said she launched Rebuild Yourself Inc to help her daughter, Karina, make friends and feel included.
“So, she would call me and say, ‘I have no friends. I feel like a loser,’ and so I started blocking off time every day during her lunch break just to talk to her on the phone,” Borgwing said. “She called me one day crying, saying that a dean found her in the bathroom eating lunch by the toilet seat, and rather than that dean making her feel better about herself the dean basically said, ‘What are you doing here? Get out!’ And she was very heartbroken about that.”
Borgwing said she ended up calling her husband and told him they needed to do something.
“We have to find something for her so that she could interact again with these kids because at the time, Lake Nona High School had 4,000 kids,” Borgwing said. “How could she not talk to someone? I looked around and there was nothing there. So, I said, ‘I’m gonna do it myself.’
“Unfortunately, a year after we had started, we were hitting the year of our gala. I wanted to do a gala because I believe about 83 percent of nonprofits fail in the first year.”
Cynthia then shared a chilling story: when a bump appeared on Karina’s leg three years ago, they got it treated at AdventHealth Orlando, and it was cancer.
“She battled for three years and unfortunately passed away last September. So, it’s been almost a year.”
Borgwing said she offers the program at no cost to ensure financial barriers never prevent a child from participating, to find the purpose in everyone’s life in some capacity.
“I don’t know if the whole purpose of, while Karina’s life was cut short, perhaps it was to be something bigger, and her legacy will live on through helping all these children,” Borgwing said.
Rebuild Yourself prides itself on providing teens and young adults with a safe, supportive community focused on connection, resilience, and hope—ensuring no young person faces life’s challenges alone, unnoticed, or without peer support.
Borgwings said one obstacle she faces is funding.
“Everyone expects non-profit funding to always be around, and that’s really our main obstacle. Finding the children isn’t the issue—they come,” Borgwing said. “But providing that service to others is where you know you’re making a real impact.”
Borgwing said turnout ranges from 15 to 20 youth at Lake Nona to smaller library groups of five to eight. Whether they join due to homeschooling, mental health struggles, or just the appeal of games and free snacks, the kids keep coming back because of the meaningful impact and community they find.
Borgwing makes financial literacy memorable through hands-on activities, like calculating local living expenses based on future career salaries and running a mock grocery challenge at Bravo Supermarket. By working with real cash budgets, kids quickly learn about the actual costs of rent, utilities, and daily necessities.
Borgwing’s organization will meet at the Veterans Memorial St. Cloud Library on Sept. 1 and at the Buenaventura Lakes Library on Sept. 14, with both sessions running from 3-5 p.m.
“I find that the peer group feels more open, especially if another child has a similar thing,” Borgwing said. “In these smaller peer support groups, if someone says something that might not be entirely accurate, the group remains supportive and gives them the confidence to speak up—hopefully carrying over into class.”
She said sometimes kids just want to be heard by other kids their age and feel like they’re really being received.
“My daughter obviously flourished from it, and after she passed away, I had a little bit of a hard time,” Borgwing said. “Like, ‘Am I doing the right thing? Should I shut it down?’ because Karina was the heart of the whole program.”
Borgwing said she only started this because of what her daughter went through, but whenever she catches herself second-guessing about what to do, she sees a Facebook post from a parent saying Rebuild saved or changed their child.
She said the messages from other parents would just start flooding in.
“Moments like that made me realize I needed to keep listening and keep going,” Borgwing said. “We’re all about healing themselves on the inside and portraying kindness to the outside.”
Borgwing said their peer group sessions are based on the peers’ recommendations. She said some of the previous sessions ranged from helping a peer handle the death of someone close to them and overcoming social anxieties. Down the line, she said she wants to be servicing all the counties in Central Florida, and then eventually, helping military bases.
“I was in the Navy, and my husband was in the Army, so I think about how DOD families travel, and kids have to start all over again,” Borgwing said. “It would be great if the Department of Defense offered these life-skills services in their Fleet and Family Support Centers, so these kids have resources to meet each other.”
