Beverly Ridge Lions Club Roars for Kids Fighting Cancer

The Beverly Ridge Lions Club recently roared into their weekly Lions Club meeting at 115 Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park and delivered a check for $750 to the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation.

The Beverly Ridge Lions Club is an organization of more than 60 men and women who work together throughout the year to raise funds and then allocate the money for charitable causes. The mission of the Lions Club is to empower volunteers to serve their communities, meet humanitarian needs, encourage peace and promote international understanding.

Lions Club member Gene Infelise said, “The phenomenal work of the Treasure Chest Foundation allows organizations such as the Lions Club to assist organizations like the Treasure Chest Foundation. We help where help is needed, in our own communities, primarily by assisting kids.”

Treasure Chest Foundation CEO and Founder Colleen Kisel expressed her gratitude for the generous support shown by the Beverly Ridge Lions Club. “The Lions Club has been extremely generous to the Treasure Chest Foundation over the years. I am especially grateful to the fine men and women of the Beverly Ridge Lions Club. A donation of this magnitude is a blessing and will brighten hospital visits for so many brave children and teens battling cancer,” said Ms. Kisel.

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 14,800 young cancer patients in 63 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 28th 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 708-687-TOYS (8697) or visit the Foundation’s website at www.treasurechest.org.