Orland Park 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 50 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 23rd anniversary of remission from the disease earlier this year.

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 10,000 children and teens monthly who are battling cancer across the nation.”

Unwrapped, brand new toys or gifts may be dropped off December 2nd through December 23rd at these locations:

*Ameriprise Financial, 15030 S. Ravinia Ave., Suite 39, Orland Park

*BISA, Bonding and Insurance Specialist Agency, 13841 Southwest

Highway, Orland Park

*Dave & Buster’s, 49 Orland Square Dr., Orland Park

*Evergreen Senior Living, 10820 183rd St., Orland Park

*Fernway Park Elementary School, 16600 S. 88th Ave., Orland Park

*Let’s Polka U.S.A., 14500 S. La Grange, Orland Chateau, Orland Park

*Orland Park Fire Department Station 2, 15100 S. 80th Ave., Orland Park

*Orland Park Fire Department Station 4, 16515 S. 94th Ave., Orland Hills

*Orland Park Fire Department Station 5, 8851 W. 143rd St., Orland Park

*Thomas Place, 15415 S. Harlem Ave., Orland Park

*Treasure Chest Foundation, 15430 70th Ct., Orland Park

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