RichLee Vans in Chicago Ridge Rolls in with Toys and Gift Cards

The employees of RichLee Vans in Chicago Ridge recently helped children and teens fighting cancer when they hosted a holiday toy and gift card drive to benefit the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation. The employees collected 100’s of toys and $380 in gift cards.

RichLee Vans is a busing company dedicated entirely to Special Needs busing. RichLee Vans operates more than 2,200 school buses in and around the Chicago-land area.

Former RichLee Vans employee Gayle Enright said “I brought the idea to RichLee Vans in 2012. I made sure Christine Dirkans carried the torch.” RichLee Vans Paraprofessional Christine Dirkans said “It is about the children. It’s all for the children.”

POTCF Founder and CEO Colleen Kisel is especially grateful to Rich Lee Vans for their toy drive this past December for children and teens fighting cancer. “Thanks to the overwhelming success of their event winter will be happier for the brave children and teens who benefit from our services across the nation,” said an appreciative Ms. Kisel.

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 24th anniversary of remission from the disease in March of 2017.

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.

Photo caption: RichLee Vans Paraprofessional Christine Dirkans (right) and former RichLee Vans employee Gayle Enright rolled into the Treasure Chest Foundation’s warehouse facility in Orland Park to deliver a van load of toys and $380 in gift cards destined for children and teens fighting cancer.