CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Tucked away inside a quiet neighborhood, Russell Cassevah is busy building his own community. He's doing it one brick at a time, with a reach that spreads far beyond his humble headquarters.
"You just kind of find your purpose and you let the universe take you where you need to go," Cassevah told me when I visited his home in Chesapeake.
Cassevah's Little Bricks Charity started with a donation of LEGO sets to the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk. In the nearly five years since, he's done the same at more than 50 children's hospitals across the nation. Cassevah, with his brightly colored mohawk haircut, delivers far more than just toys.
"That's the first step of that healing process, and then they get to open the box, and that's where the real magic happens," he says.
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Part of that magic comes from what happens online. Cassevah has built a huge social media following. The day I visited, he was live with his 1.1 million TikTok followers. They are online strangers who became a community, sending in donations and words of encouragement.
"They are the only reason that I quit my job and went in for this," he adds. "They gave me that motivational boost."
That motivation helps, as Cassevah sometimes takes painful steps to raise awareness for his charity. He's the current Guinness World Record holder for walking barefoot across LEGO bricks. I asked, why would anyone in their right mind want to do that?
"I don't think anyone in their right mind would, but very rarely am I accused of being in my right mind," he said while laughing.
His mind aside, there's no doubt Russell Cassevah's heart is in the right place. That's why I surprised him with a News 3 Everyday Hero award. It comes with a $300 Visa gift card from our community partner, Southern Bank.
"I'm gonna go spend this and buy more LEGOs," he said.
Every dollar and every brick used to build smiles and hope for families who desperately need it.
"We open this box of LEGOs, the world collapses down," Cassevah says. "It's just me and them. And they know for a few moments that nothing else matters."
Photojournalist Ian Teasley contributed to this report.
