Oak Forest-Midlothian Girl Scout Troop 60445 Goes for the Bronze

The Bronze Award is the third highest award attainable for the Girl Scouts. The coveted award symbolizes team effort by a group of scouts from a single troop to benefit the local community. That is exactly what the members of Girl Scout Troop 60445 from Oak Forest-Midlothian did when they collected toys and gift cards to benefit the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation (POTCF).

The Girl Scout mission is simple: To build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.

Girl Scout Troop Leader Jessica Crotty helped organize a “Paris” themed ball at the Oak Forest Senior Center in Oak Forest and asked the girls to donate a toy or gift card. Troop Leader Jessica Crotty and girl scout members delivered the items to the Treasure Chest Foundation warehouse. Jessica said, “The girls wanted to do something for kids with cancer. I found out about the Treasure Chest Foundation at an Oak Forest Christmas show and heard about the good work the charity does and we wanted to help.”

“The Treasure Chest Foundation is especially grateful to Girl Scout Troop 60445 for their gifts,” said Treasure Chest Founder Colleen Kisel. “Not only do we appreciate the girls’ hard work, but we are so happy to be a part of this wonderful organization which is dedicated to making the world a better place. The Treasure Chest Foundation is a better place because of Girl Scout Troop 60445.”

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 13,000 young cancer patients enduring 20,000 clinic visits each month in 19 states across the nation. 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 25th 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.