T.E.A.M. Asset Program in New Lenox Helps Children with Cancer

Students at District #210 Lincoln-Way high schools are participating in a program designed to make their local community a better environment in which to live, work and learn. T.E.A.M. Asset, an acronym for Teaching Everyone Assets Matter, provides an outlet for both children and adults who strive to improve their community. The Lincoln-Way students recently joined forces in New Lenox with Liberty Jr. High School, Lincoln-Way Central High School, Lincoln-Way West High School, Mackay Education Center, Martino Jr. High, New Lenox Chamber of Commerce, New Lenox Park District, New Lenox School District 122, Peace Lutheran Church, Manhattan Community Park District and Manhattan School District 114 and raised more than 3,530 in toys and books, $152 plus $400 in gift cards for the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation.

The program=s framework identifies the basic assets that all young people need to grow up healthy, caring and responsible, and then emphasizes each asset in a unified campaign for a better community.

Dustin Waddell, Lincoln-Way Central Student Activities Coordinator said, “The T.E.A.M. Asset team takes a lot of pride in the toy drive. We hope to bring a ray of sunshine to kids having a rainy day. I am so proud of our community.” Lincoln-Way Central Instructional Technology Coordinator Chris Fetherling chimed in, “Our students are always trying to help the community. They could not be happier to lend a helping hand.”

The recent toy drive successfully met the T.E.A.M. Asset objectives by providing comfort and distraction from painful procedures to children and teens battling cancer, prompting Treasure Chest Foundation founder and CEO Colleen Kisel to express her gratitude for the program=s efforts. AI want all the groups who worked so hard to know what a tremendous impact this toy drive will have. Their compassion and generosity will help put smiles on the faces of more than 13,300 children and teens each month who are struggling with the adversity of battling childhood cancer. What a blessing this partnership has been for the clients served by the Treasure Chest Foundation.”

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 13,300 young cancer patients in 54 cancer treatment centers 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 26th 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.

Pictured: Lincoln-Way Central Instructional Technology Coordinator Chris Fetherling (left) and Student Activities Coordinator Dustin Waddell unload a truck full of toys at the Treasure Chest Foundation’s Orland Park warehouse. The toys will be shipped to cancer treatment centers nationwide where they will help provide smiles of joy to brave childhood cancer patients.