St. C. Baby In National Competition For Baby Of The Year
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Fifteen month old Henry Kozusnik of St. Clairsville is currently in competition for 2026 Baby of the Year.
The national competition is a fundraising and awareness initiative for Baby2Baby which is a national nonprofit that provides basic essentials to more than one million children in need each year. According to its website, Baby2Baby has distributed over half a billion critical items to families in need across all 50 states over the past 15 years. The Baby of the Year competition has helped deliver a $45 million grant to further their mission.
The competition is presented by Golden Globe Award-nominated actress Jessica Alba who is a Baby2Baby board member. It is solely online and voters can vote for Kozusnik at babyoftheyear.org/2026/henry-f5f8.
"I saw the Baby of the Year competition online and I thought why not enter Henry?” Henry’s mother Lisa Kozusnik said. “So I entered him for fun and then I noticed that he started advancing and people started voting and sharing his page. And it kind of turned into, OK, this could be fun and exciting to see how far he goes.
"Then I looked more into the competition and there's actually a charitable side of the competition."
She added that people can vote for free but then there’s also an option for people to make donations, which gives them the opportunity to vote more for the baby they want.
"The organization actually helps provide babies who need but can't afford diapers, clothing and other baby things. It helps the mothers out who are living in poverty," Kozusnik said.
She added that Henry is currently in sixth place and on September 24 the top 10 contestants will advance to the next round. On Oct. 1, the top five contestants will advance. Following the top five advancement, the winner will be selected after an additional week.
Kozusnik said that she is asking the Ohio Valley community to rally behind her son to win the contest.
"I just kind of think that it’s pretty neat and honestly pretty amazing to see how this local little guy can go so far in this competition," Kozusnik said. "I also want to say thank you to every person who has voted and continues to vote for him."
The winning baby will receive $25,000, which Kozusnik said she will use to create a college fund for her son.
"It is a nice chunk to start a fund for him for school, because it’s so expensive these days," Kozusnik said. "That would at least be a year, maybe two years worth of money to help him to support whatever he wants to do when he gets older. That would go a long way."
Henry has two older brothers — 12-year-old Hudson and 9-year-old Oliver.
"The boys are my saving grace at times. They help me a lot with Henry, and Henry just looks up to them," Kozusnik said. "He’s a happy little boy. He’s full of energy and has a lot of personality. He brings happiness to our family."
She added that having Henry later into her life is an interesting perspective because it gives her the opportunity to go back and redo the baby ages of having a child.
"I’m an older mom, so it’s kind of neat to look back and redo this baby age with him," Kozusnik said. "Now being older it gives me a different perspective."