LFHS Students Run Holiday Toy Drive For Children's Hospital

LAKE FOREST-LAKE BLUFF, IL - From Lake Forest Schools: Over the past four months, five Lake Forest high school juniors have created a company through the business incubator class that the high school provides. The class focusses on creating companies from scratch using the Lean Process.

Their company, Battle Buddies, is a nonprofit organization that seeks to raise the spirits of pediatric cancer patients by pairing them with young adult volunteers who meet with them on a weekly basis.

Their goal is to provide a break from the hardships and stress involved in battling cancer and allow patients to hang out and kick back with a buddy.

Battle Buddies is currently run by Colin Lochiatto, Collin Theirgart, Katie Abdallah, Jennifer Leeson, and Tate Dahlgreen.

The company recently decided to do a Holiday Toy Drive to help raise toys for patients at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

From Dec. 4 through Dec. 14, Battle Buddies set up bins around their school and sold brass ornaments of the front of Lake Forest high school to raise extra money for more toys.

After all of the fundraising, the group was able to collect just over 150 toys. These toys ranged from remote controlled cars to American Girl dolls. All of the toys were delivered to the hospital and the toy drive was a massive success.

Image caption: LFHS Students Colin Lochiatto, Collin Theirgart, Katie Abdallah, Jennifer Leeson, and Tate Dahlgreen | Courtesy Lake Forest Schools