Carl Sandburg High School Students Help Teens Fighting Cancer

Carl Sandburg High School students are giving back to teens fighting cancer by hosting a Teen Drive sponsored by the St. Baldrick’s Committee to benefit the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation (POTCF). The teen drive collected $495 in gift cards, $80 in cash and over 100 items for teens fighting cancer.

Carl Sandburg High School student and committee member Alyssa Jacobs, who has pitched in as a volunteer at the Treasure Chest Foundation’s Orland Park warehouse, had positive reactions to her experience. Alyssa said, “The whole idea was to collect items to make gift bags so the teens have something to look forward to. Teens helping teens is the whole idea.” Carl Sandburg High School World Language Teacher Kelly Mendoza chimed in saying, “I am so proud of the staff and students for their extreme generosity towards this teen drive.”

POTCF Founder and CEO Colleen Kisel is grateful for the St. Baldrick’s Committee and Carl Sandburg High School’s enormous donation. Colleen said, “We are incredibly proud of the St. Baldrick’s Committee and students like Alyssa who willingly made the decision to help teens fighting cancer.”

The POTCF is a non-profit organization that provides comfort and distraction from painful procedures to children and teens diagnosed with cancer by providing a toy, gift or gift certificate in 49 hospitals nationwide. Nowhere else in the nation does such a program exist. CEO Colleen Kisel founded the organization in 1996 after her then seven-year-old son Martin had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1993. Colleen 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 22nd anniversary of remission from the disease earlier 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.