When Jon Kozesky and Amber Toth walk down the aisle this Saturday, Sept. 19 at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, they’ll be celebrating their marriage—but they’ll also be celebrating the organization that helped bring them together.

Jon Kozesky and Amber Toth.Instead of a traditional wedding registry, the Fairview Park couple is asking guests, friends, and the community to make contributions to The Littlest Heroes Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Their goal is to raise more than $100,000 for Northeast Ohio families battling childhood cancer during September’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

A connection that came full circle
Kozesky’s connection to childhood cancer and The Littlest Heroes goes back two decades. In the early 2000s his younger cousin, Nathan, was diagnosed with a brain tumor and battled cancer for several years before passing away in 2006 at the age of eight. Kozzesky was 18 and just graduating from high school.

Kozesky, 38, didn’t know it at the time, but The Littlest Heroes helped Nathan and his family through Nathan’s battle with cancer. Kozesky figured it out when he started volunteering with The Littlest Heroes about 10 years ago.

“I was actually involved with the group for about two or three months before I started connecting the dots and started looking through the files,” he recalls. “And I said, oh, my goodness, here's my family. It was you guys.”

Around the same time, he met Toth, who was also involved with The Littlest Heroes. Today, Kozesky serves as executive director of the nonprofit, and Toth, 32, acts as program director.

That history made the decision about their wedding registry an easy one. They would ask for contributions to The Littlest Heroes.

“One of the very first questions people ask is, where are you registered? And we kind of looked at each other and said, ‘well, we don't need anything,’” Kozesky recalls before asking, “Why don't people ever do a wedding registry that's for charity and make a donation, as opposed to whatever you were planning to give us?”

The decision was immediately clear. “We said, ‘well, what other group would we pick than The Littlest Heroes?’”

The couple’s wedding will have another special connection to the organization: Several of The Littlest Heroes children who battled cancer and are now survivors will serve as flower girls and ring bearer at the wedding this weekend.

“Those kids and their families aren't just people we've served—they've become part of our lives,” Toth says in the couple’s press release. “We've been there for some incredibly difficult days, but we've also gotten to be there for some of the best ones. Having them beside us for one of the happiest days of our lives makes this feel like so much more than a wedding.”

Lucas was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma at the age of 3.A wedding with a safari twist
Stillwater Place, an indoor-outdoor pavilion at the zoo overlooking Waterfowl Lake, will provide the setting for Saturday’s celebration. The couple carried a safari theme from their engagement into the wedding—a nod to the couple’s shared love of travel and philanthropy.

Kozesky proposed to Toth during a layover in Cairo on a trip to Africa. With about 18 hours between flights, he decided it was the perfect opportunity to visit the pyramids—and, he realized, to propose.

“I thought, ‘Wow, if I'm ever going to propose, there will never be a cooler place than,’” he recalls of the decision. “And I can probably get credit—like I planned this out years in advance.”

But the proposal didn’t go exactly as planned. When Kozesky dropped to one knee, Toth initially thought he was joking.

“I dropped on one knee and Amber said ‘no,’ which is the best part of the story because she thought I was kidding and because I hadn't pulled out the ring yet,” Kozesky says. “And she said, ‘Get up, that's not funny.’”

He pulled out the ring and tried again.

“And that's how we did it,” he says.

Showing up for families
The couple’s work with The Littlest Heroes has given them a close look at the realities families face when a child is diagnosed with cancer. The organization, which has existed for 25 years and helped 10,000 people, provides financial, emotional, and social support to families throughout Northeast Ohio.

Support can include helping with rent and utilities when a parent has to step away from work to care for a child, as well as providing monthly gas and grocery support. The organization also hosts family events and an annual Adopt A Family program that supports the entire family, rather than just the child undergoing treatment.

Amber and Jon with Mick at end of treatment.“One of the very hardest things is when we've had that celebration and we've had a few little heroes that we've lost even after having done that celebration,” Toth says.

But the couple says the small victories keep them going. For instance, they recall one family whose car was about to be repossessed while their child was receiving cancer treatment. The organization’s small volunteer committee quickly approved assistance, and Kozesky drove to a credit union south of Akron with a check.

“We got in the car and we drove,” he says. “It was just south of Akron. So we drove about 90 minutes that day, walked into a credit union with a check and said, leave the car where it is. Here's your payment. Everybody relax.”

Toth says they recognize that the smaller things count too.

“We do a lot of utility payments for any bills that they fall behind on,” she says. “Because a lot of times when the child is in active treatment, one of the parents has to step away from their job to take the child to the hospital every day for treatment, and it really affects the entire family.”

Toth adds the loss of income often means families fall behind on bills. “That's where our main focus is—being the financial safety net for these families. And we also do a meal support program, provide monthly gas and grocery support for the families. So a lot of times, they don't have to choose between putting meals on their table and taking their child to treatment.”

The support goes beyond financial assistance, however.

“Our secondary focus is bringing the families together and being more of the emotional, social support,” Toth says. “We have a number of family events where the families can just come be together, meet other families who are going through something similar as them, and then build more of a community.”

Clare, 7, was diagnosed at age 2 with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a rare brain tumor.Kozesky and Toth say those moments are at the heart of why they chose to turn their wedding into a fundraiser.

“We've had so many people show up for us throughout our lives, often without knowing what their kindness might set in motion,” Kozesky says in the press release. “Someone showed up for my family. That inspired me to serve. Service brought Amber and me together. Now we get to use the day we celebrate that story to show up for the next family. There's something pretty special about that.”

He adds that most of their friends are quite familiar with their mission.

“A lot of our guests are people who we've introduced to The Littlest Heroes before—they're friends of ours who have attended our galas or events in the past,” he says. “A number of the families we serve will be there as well. So, we're planning a little video at the beginning before the ceremony that will paint the picture a little bit more for everybody.

“Generally speaking, everybody's pretty in-the-know of how we ended up here,” he continues.

Toth says their friends and family are extremely familiar with their work.

“We've definitely pulled in all of our friends and family over 10 years,” Toth says. “A lot of them have helped with our Adopt A family program at the holidays—driving gifts around town. If you know us, you definitely know about The Littlest Heroes.”

Toth and Kozesky both say they hope the concept goes beyond their own wedding.

Jon and Amber get engaged in Egypt.“Not everyone can write a huge check or devote their career to a cause, and they don't have to,” Toth says. “It might be [donating] your time, [doing] something you're good at, [making] a connection you can make, or simply being there when somebody needs you. We happened to have a wedding, and this was our way of using what we had to help.”

Kozesky says Saturday’s celebration represents a ripple effect of one act of kindness.

“You don't need to change the world,” he says. “You just have to be willing to change a little piece of it for somebody. If our wedding helps a family breathe a little easier or inspires someone else to find their own way to help, that's a pretty incredible wedding gift.”

The couple’s $100,000 fundraising campaign is underway at The Littlest Heroes. Contributions can be made through The Littlest Heroes donation page.

Or check out the other ways you can get involved.