61st Treasure Chest Program Opens in Akron, Ohio

The Treasure Chest Foundation is proud to announce the opening of our 61st Treasure Chest Program on November 18, 2020 at Akron Children’s Hospital in Akron, Ohio.

Because our mission is to provide comfort and distraction from painful procedures to children and teens who have been diagnosed with cancer, this latest Treasure Chest Program opening was again cause for major celebration. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, patients and families were restricted from attending the ribbon cutting ceremony. However, the children inside the hospital were overjoyed to receive the toys, gifts and gift cards that were hand-delivered by Patient Navigator, Gina Altieri and her fellow hospital staff members.

This Treasure Chest Program, sponsored by Foundation Board Member Herb Walker and his wife Jan, will make a tremendous impact by providing our services to more than 200 brave young Akron area cancer patients each month. The opening also reminds us that we are truly blessed to have your ongoing and generous support. Thanks to caring people like you, we now serve more than 14,600 young cancer patients in 20 states across the nation and in the District of Columbia each month and we continue to grow.

Thanks for helping to make our dream a reality, for the brave children and families in Akron, Ohio and for all future Treasure Chest locations.

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact thousands of young cancer patients in cancer treatment centers nationwide. 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 27th 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 web site at www.treasurechest.org.