Toy Con Toy Shows 21st Year of Supporting Kids Fighting Cancer

Toy Con Toy Show of Bridgeview is giving to children and teens fighting cancer. The annual charity toy show, held on December 2nd at the Bridgeview Community Center, featured 60 toy dealers. When the show was over, Toy Con had raised more than $1,800 in gift cards and collected thousands of toys for the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation (POTCF), an Orland Park-based non-profit organization that provides comfort and distraction from painful treatments to children and teens diagnosed with cancer by providing a toy, gift or gift card in 54 Children’s Cancer Treatment Centers nationwide.

Toy Con Toy Show was established in 1992 and is dedicated to presenting toy shows featuring an amazing variety of toys (including action figures, super heroes, dolls, lunch boxes, sci-fi toys and more) as well as comic books, non-sport cards and rare, hard-to-find collectibles.

Toy Con Toy Show co-founder Terry Mannix said, “It’s been 21 years and we’re still helping provide kids fighting cancer with smiles to keep them going.”

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 20 years ago to benefit the Treasure Chest Foundation. 100% of their donation will end up in the hands of a child fighting cancer.”

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.

Photo caption:

Toy Con Toy Show Founders Rich Mannix (left) and Terry Mannix display the donated gift cards at the Treasure Chest Foundation’s Orland Park warehouse. The gift cards will help the Treasure Chest Foundation make a difference for brave teenage cancer patients nationwide.