Oak Forest Holiday Toy Drives to Benefit Children with Cancer

Area residents and businesses have an opportunity this holiday season to support children and teens fighting cancer by donating a new toy or gift during the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation (POTCF) annual Holiday Toy Drive.

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 card in 54 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. 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 25th anniversary of remission from the disease in March.

Ms. Kisel emphasized the importance of the Foundation’s efforts by saying, “The toys we collect during this Holiday Toy Drive will enable us to continue providing smiles of joy to more than 13,300 children and teens monthly who are battling cancer across the nation.”

Unwrapped, brand new toys or gifts may be dropped off December 4th through December 21st at these locations

*Lee R. Foster Elementary School, 5931 W. School Street

*Oak Forest City Hall, 15440 Central Avenue

*Oak Forest High School, 15201 Central Avenue

*Ridge Early Childhood Center, 5151 149th Street

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