Westchester Community Church Benefits Children with Cancer

In the spirit of giving, the parishioners of Westchester Community Church Missions Group in Westchester are providing comfort to children fighting cancer by creating hand-made snuggly hats, scarves and blankets to benefit the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation (POTCF).

Westchester Community Church parishioner Sandy Tavernier said, “I like coming here, you are all so nice. It’s amazing what you are doing.”

Treasure Chest Foundation CEO and Founder Colleen Kisel expressed her profound gratitude for the generous support shown by the Westchester parishioners. “The Treasure Chest Foundation is especially grateful for their enormous donation. The hats, scarves and blankets are very popular at the Children’s Cancer Treatment Centers,” said an appreciative Ms. Kisel. “It is wonderful to see the giving members of this church come together to help little ones whose lives have become filled with doctors, nurses, surgeries, pills, chemotherapy, radiation and mostly painful, painful procedures.”

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 14,600 young cancer patients in 62 cancer treatment centers in 20 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 earlier this month.

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.