Orland Park Kiwanis Club Donates to Help Kids Fighting Cancer

The Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation was overjoyed to receive an enormous donation of $10,000 recently from the Orland Park Kiwanis Club. The donation will directly benefit children and teens fighting cancer.

Kiwanis is a global organization of members from every age dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time.

Orland Park Kiwanis Club member Herb Walker said, “I read an article written about the Treasure Chest Foundation in the newspaper. The article had such wonderful things about this Foundation. The Kiwanis Club decided to contribute money to help the Treasure Chest Foundation.”

Treasure Chest Foundation CEO and Founder Colleen Kisel expressed her gratitude for the support shown by the Orland Park Kiwanis Club. “We feel so blessed and honored to have the support of the Kiwanis Club. The donation will help support thousands of children and teens who endure years and years of unending cancer treatments by rewarding the little ones with a toy, gift or gift card after every procedure.”

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 13,300 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 in March.

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.