Wilmette Brothers Organize Holiday Toy Drive to Help Children

The family and friends of eight-year-old Blake and five-year-old Brandon Sander are giving to children fighting cancer. Wilmette brothers hosted a holiday toy drive by asking neighbors, friends, family and their school to donate a toy with the goal of helping children and teens fighting cancer. After the last toy had been picked up, a U-Haul truck and one vanload of over 600 toys to be distributed to children fighting cancer was delivered to the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation (POTCF) warehouse in Orland Park. Young Blake Sander said, “We wanted to have more toys to donate for the children in the hospital.” Five-year-old Brandon chimed in saying, “I wanted to share with the kids who have cancer.”

Treasure Chest Foundation CEO and Founder Colleen Kisel extended her most sincere gratitude to the Sander family for their efforts in organizing such a successful toy drive. “The Treasure Chest Foundation is especially grateful to the Sander family for their enormous donation,” said a grateful Colleen Kisel, Founder and CEO of the Treasure Chest Foundation. “We are certainly grateful to be able to distribute such an impressive number of toys to the brave children and battling cancer.”

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.