Boxing Up Love and Joy for Kids Fighting Cancer

International Paper in Aurora is giving to kids fighting cancer by donating 400 corrugated boxes to the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation (POTCF). The boxes will be used to move hundreds of pounds of toys weekly to Children’s Cancer Treatment Centers across the nation.

International Paper’s mission is to improve people’s lives, the planet and the company’s performance by transforming renewable resources into products people depend on every day. International Paper’s Site Manager Mike Soelke said, “We are glad to help.”

POTCF Founder and CEO Colleen Kisel said, “I know what it is like to have to rummage around in dumpsters searching for clean shipping boxes. International Paper’s donation of boxes is so appreciated and will save the Treasure Chest Foundation hundreds of dollars monthly on the cost of new boxes.”

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 15,700 young cancer patients in 65 cancer treatment centers in 21 states across the nation and in the District of Columbia. Nowhere else in the nation does such a program exist. Colleen Kisel founded the organization in 1996 after her then seven-year-old son Martin had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1993. Ms. Kisel discovered that giving her son a toy after each procedure provided a calming distraction from his pain, noting that when children are diagnosed with cancer their world soon becomes filled with doctors, nurses, chemotherapy drugs, surgeries and seemingly endless painful procedures. Martin celebrated his 29th anniversary of remission from the disease in March of this year.

If you would like further information about the Treasure Chest Foundation, please contact Colleen Kisel at 1-708-687-TOYS (8697) or visit the Foundation’s website at www.treasurechest.org.