Toy Con Toy Show Supports Teens Fighting Cancer

Toy Con Toy Show Co-Founder Terry Mannix displays 141, $10.00 donated gift cards at the Treasure Chest Foundation’s Orland Park warehouse. Toy Con Toy Show raised $1,410 during their annual charity toy show on December 3rd and 4th, 2022. Terry shopped tirelessly throughout the mall garnering 141 gift cards valued at $1,410. The gift cards are strategically labeled and placed inside large business envelopes for the nurses to distribute to the teens we serve. The gift cards will help the Treasure Chest Foundation make a difference for brave teenage cancer patients nationwide.

Toy Con Toy Show Co-Founder Terry Mannix said, “It’s been 25 years and we’re still helping provide kids fighting cancer with smiles to keep them going, it feels so good.”

Treasure Chest Foundation CEO and Founder Colleen Kisel appreciates the tremendous support provided each year by the show’s organizers. Colleen said, “Toy Con Toy Show was the very first organization to host a toy drive 25 years ago to benefit the Treasure Chest Foundation. 100% of their donation will end up in the hands of a child fighting cancer. Overall, the Toy-Con Toy Shows’ amazing efforts have netted more than $14,500 in gift cards and more than 100,000 toys over the course of the fundraising events’ existence.

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 16,100 young cancer patients in 66 cancer treatment centers in 21 states across the nation and in the District of Columbia. 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 29th anniversary of remission from the disease in March of this year.

If you would like further information about the Treasure Chest Foundation, please contact Colleen Kisel at 1-708-687-TOYS (8697) or visit the Foundation’s website at www.treasurechest.org.