Man spreads Christmas cheer year-round as eastern North Carolina Grinch

By Keenan Willard

Click here for updates on this story

    NEWTON GROVE, North Carolina (WRAL) — Two years after losing his son to illness, Sampson County native Kevin Brown has channeled his grief into a new calling — becoming the Grinch of Eastern North Carolina.

Brown has raised thousands of dollars to sponsor families during the holidays who are facing financial hardships due to medical costs for their children.

If you live in the eastern part of the state and spent any time on Facebook or Tiktok during the holidays, you’ve probably come across a video of Brown. For the last two Decembers, he’s donned his furry, green suit and set up shop in towns across the state, inviting families to come take pictures with the Grinch free of charge.

“It’s just fun to me,” described Brown. “You get to be a different person, and it’s like getting away from life for a little while maybe.”

But before there was the Grinch, Brown’s focus was Cody. His son made his way through life facing a different set of challenges, and Brown was with him at every turn.

“He was autistic,” Brown said of Cody. “Very, very introverted, he didn’t like being around people, he liked being in his own space.”

One thing Cody did like was Christmas – especially when it was time for someone else to open presents.

“At Christmas time, he would rub his hands together man,” Brown said. “When you were waiting for to get a gift, he’d be over there like this rubbing his hands together, he wanted to see what you were getting.”

In August 2019, the family was already looking forward to another holiday season until one day, Brown got a call from his fiancée at work.

“I picked up the phone, and she told me that Cody, they found Cody unconscious,” Brown said.

Cody was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors first told the family he may have had a heart attack. He spent days undergoing tests, and doctors soon found pneumonia in Cody’s lungs that would keep him from ever breathing on his own again. As his condition worsened, they tried twice to revive him with CPR.

“And then the doctor comes and tells you that they’re not going to do no more after the next time,” Brown said. “You know, they’re just going to let him pass. You can’t be told anything worse dude, you can’t.”

Cody died on Aug. 27, 2019. He was 26 years old.

Brown was in free fall. Where could he possibly go from there?

As the weeks passed, he became fixated on his time at Cody’s bedside.

“We were looking to do something to honor him, you know?” Brown said. “When Cody was in the hospital, I didn’t work, I couldn’t work, and my job was really good about that.”

“But somebody that don’t have that backup system, you know, they need some help,” he continued.

Brown started putting plans together, and in November 2020, he launched the first iteration of “A Cody Brown Christmas,” taking pictures as the Grinch to gather donations for a family he’d learned had a young daughter who was fighting leukemia.

This year, they went even bigger, raising $7,000 to support two families, one with a pair of five-year-old girls who were charting their own course with autism, just like Cody did.

“It keeps him alive, you know, a lot of people get forgotten,” Brown said. “Even maybe after I’m gone, somebody will keep that going you know?”

“And that’s why I started it, so it would grow every year,” he finished.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.