CICERO — When Kevin Toms received his first cellphone, he immediately changed the image on his lock screen to a photo of himself with his best friend, Griffin Engle.
“They used to call each other Batman and Robin on the soccer field together. They started in Lil Kickers when they were 3,” said Lori Lake-Toms, Kevin’s mother.
Griffin will never get the chance to share pics with Kevin on Snapchat or Instagram. He’ll never get to partake in all the teenage shenanigans Kevin is getting into these days. He didn’t get to blow out 14 candles on a cake on Aug. 18 of this year.
“We should have been playing soccer together, hanging out, getting into trouble and being teenagers together,” Kevin said in a recent YouTube video. “But cancer took all that away from us and so much more.”
Less than a month after he turned 7, Griffin passed away Sept. 12, 2014, after battling a rare brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme.
“When Griffin died, it changed my life forever,” said Kevin, now 14.
Now, Kevin is paying tribute to Griffin by raising money for the pediatric cancer nonprofit that bears his name: Griffin’s Guardians. For the second year in a row, Kevin is hosting the Can Crush Cancer bottle drive. Last year, he made $5,000, and he is hoping to match that goal this year.
Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Griffin’s Guardians to cancel its two major fundraisers, the Gold Tie Gala and the Soccer Shoot-Out. The gala has been canceled again this year.
“That was upsetting for him,” said Christine Dallmann, event coordinator for Griffin’s Guardians.
Kevin vowed to help the Engles make up for some of the revenue they’ve lost. He worked with Griffin’s Guardians to coordinate a COVID-safe bottle and can drive where people could drop off their returnables without having to come into contact with each other.
“He wanted to do it in the month of September since it’s [Childhood] Cancer Awareness Month,” Dallmann said.
Lake-Toms said the family was stunned at the success of Can Crush Cancer in 2020. Kevin collected two trailers of returnables.
“We didn’t even expect it. We thought, ‘If he does $500, that’d be great,’ but he got $5,000,” she said.
“I was overwhelmed,” Kevin said. “It was cool to see that the community could come out and do something like that. I was pretty proud.”
The Toms family is no stranger to fundraising for Griffin’s Guardians. Kevin’s older brother, Kyle, helped raise money for an electric toy car to replace a wheelchair for pediatric cancer patients at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital.
“It’s something that affected all our family. It’s something that we don’t want anyone else to suffer the way we had to watch the Engles suffer,” Lake-Toms said.
While it took several years for Kevin to truly understand what his friend faced — “I feel like I was too young to really wrap my head around it,” he said — he rallied for Griffin all the same.
“Kevin would go visit Griffin in the hospital when other kids were afraid. Kevin wasn’t — he would go lay in his bed with him, play video games, get into trouble,” Lake-Toms recalled.
“He was my best friend. We did everything together. I didn’t want him to be lonely up there,” Kevin said.
One of the photos Kevin treasures is from a surprise birthday party Griffin’s friends threw for him at the hospital. When the kids jumped out to surprise Griffin, he ran straight into Kevin’s arms.
After Griffin passed away, Erin Engle gave Kevin a few of her son’s belongings. They sit on a shelf next to Kevin’s bed today.
“He was the nicest guy you know,” Kevin said.
Drop off your bottles and cans from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25, or from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 26, at Griffin’s Guardians, 8116 Brewerton Road, Cicero. For every bag of bottles and cans you donate, you can be entered into a drawing for a $250 Visa gift card. Virtual donors can participate in the fundraiser and enter to win as well. For more information, visit griffinsguardians.org/can-crush-cancer.html.
