Mount Greenwood Man Helps Kids with Cancer

Mount Greenwood man Dan Ritchie lends a helping hand at the warehouse of the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation (POTCF). The Orland Park-based non-profit organization provides comfort and distraction from painful treatments to children and teens diagnosed with cancer by providing a toy or gift card in 63 hospitals nationwide.

Dan helped organize, pack, and prepare the toys and gifts for shipment to Treasure Chests located in the various children’s cancer treatment centers served by the Foundation. POTCF CEO and Founder Colleen Kisel noted Dan personally prepared more than 429 pounds’ worth of toys for shipping enough to stock seven children’s cancer treatment centers located at Jimmy Everest Center for Blood Disorders and Cancer in Children, Oklahoma City, OK, St. Vincent Hospital, Green Bay, WI, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, OSF Healthcare Foundation Heller Center for Kids with Cancer, Peoria, IL, University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville, VA, Miami Cancer Institute, Miami, FL and Beacon Children’s Hospital, South Bend, IN for the next several weeks.

The work itself is seldom easy and typically a physically challenging job of lifting and stacking the boxes once they are ready to be shipped to their ultimate destinations. Dan Ritchie recognizes the importance of the task, with Dan saying, “Always happy to do a good deed for someone else.”

Ms. Kisel showed her appreciation for Dan’s loyalty and hard work, saying, “Volunteers like Dan is the lifeblood of our Foundation. Without Dan, we would never be able to provide smiles of joy to thousands of young cancer patients every month. We are so grateful that Dan is willing to take time to be here week after week and his contributions over the years have been incredible.”

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 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 1-708-687-TOYS (8697) or visit the Foundation’s website at www.treasurechest.org.