Brunswick teen’s legacy lives on at 2025 Lifebanc event

BRUNSWICK, Ohio — When participants and visitors gather for the 2025 Lifebanc Gift of Life Walk and Run Aug. 10 at the Porthouse Theatre, the memory and legacy of Kevin Fox will be alive and well.

“Kevin had signed up to be an organ donor in April 2012,” his sister, Colleen Fox, said. “Little did we know when he made that decision what would happen.”

In June 2012, Kevin was one of four Brunswick High School students killed in a single-car crash on the eve of their graduation.

Colleen and other members of the Fox family — collectively known as Team Fox — have participated in the Walk and Run in honor of Kevin for several years.

The 5K race and 1-mile “family fun walk” will be held from 7:30 a.m. to noon at Porthouse Theatre, 3143 O’Neil Road in Cuyahoga Falls, adjacent to Blossom Music Center.

According to organizers, the event honors, celebrates and provides hope for those impacted by organ donation or transplantation.

Funds raised are used to educate the community about the need for registered organ, eye and tissue donors, as well as to provide grief support for families whose loved one was a donor.

Now in its 26th year, the event is open to participants and visitors alike. The day will include food trucks, a kid zone, music, speakers (including organ recipients), the “legacy garden” and “T-shirt row,” featuring shirts from Gift of Walk teams throughout the years.

Colleen said Team Fox’s annual participation continues Kevin’s legacy and educates others about the importance of becoming an organ donor.

She said the journey began for her brother — however unbeknownst to him — when he became an organ donor and listed “save a life” as one of his life goals in a school project shortly before his death.

“It is turning pain into purpose,” Colleen said, adding that Team Fox has “taken on a life of its own.”

“Everything happens for a reason, and I truly believe there is a deeper purpose than all the pain,” she said.

“The gift of life is the greatest gift of all — the impact a life can leave. Each time we tell Kevin’s story, that keeps him alive.”

Colleen said the Fox family has also met some of the people whose lives were saved by Kevin’s decision to become a donor.

“We’ve met his heart recipient and both his kidney recipients,” she said.

“One of his kidney recipients unfortunately passed, but she was given an extra 13 years.”

Colleen said the experience of meeting Kevin’s heart recipient in particular was something “that can’t be put into words.”

“To know his heart — truly his best attribute — was helping a complete stranger,” she said.

“In his passing, he has brought all these people together.”

The Gift of Life Walk and Run has also inspired Colleen in a personal way.

“I have struggled with my weight my whole life and I wanted to be empowered,” she said of her decision two years ago to participate in the 5K race.

She lost more than 100 pounds during her training for the event.

“All these years I’ve been a walker at the event, and wished I could be out there running,” she saidl.

She said she feels it was Kevin who gave her the strength to complete the challenge.

“(I said) I’m going to do it for him,” Colleen said. “One of Kevin’s iconic quotes was ‘never give up.’

“And to also have my brother Sean run in it with me, I felt both my brothers were telling me ‘go do it.’”

Colleen Gerber, marketing and communications specialist for Lifebanc, said the federally regulated organization began more than 35 years ago and serves as Northeast Ohio’s only nonprofit organ and tissue recovery organization.

She said LifeBanc and the Fox family became aware of one another shortly after Kevin’s death.

“When we were able to fulfill that wish, it was so profound,” Gerber said of Kevin’s wish to save a life. “That is exactly what we are in this for.”

Gerber said educating both donor and recipient families and the general public about the organ donation process is vital to LifeBanc’s mission.

She noted that doctors and first responders are not aware of an organ donor’s status, and LifeBanc does not make contact with donor families until a doctor has informed the family that their loved one will not survive.

Gerber said that even if a donor’s wishes are indicated on their driver’s license, doctors do not have access to the actual donor registry.

She said one of the most often expressed oppositions to organ donation is the thought that the doctor will not take proper efforts to save the life of a donor.

“They take an oath and make every effort to save life,” Gerber said.

She added that donors should discuss their wishes with family members “so that they know what you want.”

“This takes the burden off, and it is a big decision for a family in trauma,” she said.

Gerber called the act of organ donation “profoundly life changing.”

“It goes to show, like with Kevin, that all these years later we are able to celebrate (him) as a hero,” she said.

“(And) it is about a 10-year-old kid getting a liver and being able to live. It is like no other medical treatment; it’s so amazingly human.”

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