Wedding Guests Donate Instead of Gifts to Help Families Facing Pediatric Cancer

Quick Smiles:

• A bride and groom chose to honor a young cousin by turning their wedding into a pediatric cancer fundraiser
• Guests generously donated $50,000 to The Littlest Heroes during the reception
• Strangers joined in, helping the couple approach their $100,000 goal for families in need

Amber and Jon Kozesky met while volunteering for The Littlest Heroes pediatric cancer foundation. They decided to mark their September 2026 wedding by asking loved ones to give to the charity instead of traditional gifts.

“One of the first questions people ask when you tell them you’re getting married — after ‘When?’ — is ‘Where are you registered?’ Amber and I quickly agreed that there wasn’t much we needed, but there was so much need around us,” Jon said. “And then I think it hit both of us at almost the same time: Why not ask people to support the organization that had helped my family all those years ago and, ultimately, was the reason Amber and I ever met in the first place?”

The couple wanted to remember Jon’s cousin, who passed away at eight years old after battling a brain tumor. They understood the heavy burdens families carry when a child is sick.

“When a child has cancer, an entire family is suddenly rearranging its life around treatments, hospital visits, and caring for a sick child, while the normal responsibilities of life don’t stop,” Jon said. “There are still bills to pay, groceries to buy, gas tanks to fill and other siblings who need their parents.”

The reception gifts totaled $50,000, and word of their cause spread far beyond the guest list. Donations from strangers pushed the total closer to the couple’s ambitious $100,000 target.

“It made an already meaningful day feel like it belonged to something bigger than just the two of us,” Jon said. “Knowing that while we were celebrating, another family might have one less bill to worry about or one less impossible choice to make is probably the greatest wedding gift anyone could have given us.”

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