Mom Goes Viral After Community Helps Surprise Son for Birthday (Exclusive)

• Nadja Jovanovic’s youngest son, Kosta, has always loved transportation vehicles
• So, as Kosta’s 4th birthday approached on March 24, the mom wanted to surprise her son by getting him up close to some fancy cars
• She posted on her city’s private Facebook group, which has 15,000 active members, to see if anyone with a cool car would be willing to come to them. Then, almost 100 people replied

Nadja Jovanovic’s youngest son, Kosta, has always loved transportation vehicles. Much of his passion stems from his two older brothers, Relja, 7, and Lav, 5, who were also obsessed with trucks, planes and trains from a young age, as well as his dad, Miko, who has always had a love for luxury cars and vintage vehicles.

So, as Kosta’s 4th birthday approached on March 24, Nadja wanted to surprise him by taking him to a local dealership in their suburb of Winter Springs, Fla., to see all the cool cars up close.

“Like any boy, Kosta loves speed. Also, the bright colors and cool designs,” the mom, 31, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “His favorite car is a Lamborghini Aventador. Although, this changes daily; the Porsche 911 is also at the top of his list.”

One day leading up to her son’s birthday, Nadja randomly got the idea to post on her city’s private Facebook group, which has 15,000 active members, to see if anyone with a cool car would be willing to come to them. The mom hoped to surprise her son with a luxury car in their driveway and maybe let him sit inside.

In the post, she says she asked for “15 minutes of someone’s time, tops.” Going into it, she had no particular expectations but knew she had nothing to lose by reaching out. But, not long after posting, something unexpected happened.

“I had so many people respond to the post!” Nadja recalls. “I was pleasantly surprised at how kind everyone was and how many were willing to come out to us or offer referrals to local car meetups and events. We have a very active car community here in Central Florida/Seminole County, so I really hoped someone would come through,”

“In the end, Mike Mallozzi, a local car enthusiast, was the one who came out and surprised us with a police-escorted luxury car parade,” she adds. “I thought one or two cars would show up — that’s all he told me.”

Then, on Sunday, March 23, the day before Kosta’s actual birthday, around 10 cars showed up, with Mallozzi leading the way, plus the patrol cars. The mom adds how she later learned that Mallozzi is close with a non-profit organization called Dream Cars 4 Kids and had invited some of their drivers to join the parade, too.

After they left, another local couple, John and Paula, came with a beautiful Lamborghini Aventador. The next day, another man named Phil arrived with his fire-red Corvette.

“We are incredibly grateful for such a generous, kind, and wonderful community that we live in,” Nadja says.

“That entire morning, I was so emotional,” she adds. “Seeing my kids’ reactions to everything was just incredibly heartwarming. And all the people that came out with their cars, no questions asked, with big smiles on their faces, just to make a little stranger happy — I was truly overwhelmed. I cannot thank everyone enough.”

Later on, Nadja strung together clips from that day and made a short video for her family to have as a memory. She uploaded it to TikTok and didn’t think much of it. But within two days, the likes and views skyrocketed into the millions.

Currently, the video has almost 22 million views and more than 40,000 comments, including from Porsche, Hot Wheels and Mercedes-Benz.

“The video literally shows our genuine, first shocked reactions to everything,” the mom says, “Mike told me, ‘I’m there in 3 minutes,’ and by the time I glanced at my phone, I heard police sirens. I thought, ‘There’s no way…’ Still in our PJs and puffy morning faces, we open the door and step out to the most insane sight. Mike leading the way in his beautiful white Porsche, followed by our entire street filled with more Porsche 911s, Audi R8s, Mercedes GTs, BMW M4s … it was just insane.”

“The kids could simply not believe that everyone was there for little Kosta and them! My car-loving husband was also in shock,” she adds. “Everyone was so kind. They not only let Kosta and the boys see the cars, but get up close, touch, sit in, rev the engines, it was just the sweetest thing.”

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For the mom, the craziest thing about it is that she’s never seen that many kind, positive comments under a video in her life. She’s been on social media for years, and it’s just incredible to be received so warmly, she says.

“Seeing comments like, ‘This has restored my faith in humanity,’ and ‘I love when people, people,’ and ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever seen on the Internet,’ and ‘Now THIS is community — we need more of this in the world’ … I mean, I was in tears for days reading everything,” Nadja says. “Those alone show how deeply this video touched people.”

As a thank you, Nadja handed out cupcakes she’d made her Kosta’s birthday to all the drivers.

“This has turned into something way bigger than just my son’s birthday,” the mom adds. “We saw firsthand that kindness still exists in this world. People are good. There is so much good in the world, I hope we showed everyone just that!”