Community Corner
Palos Park Couple Donates to Help Children and Teens with Cancer
Treasure Chest Foundation Board Member Herb Walker and wife Janice proudly present the $20,000 donation.
The Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation (POTCF) of Orland Park was overjoyed recently to receive an enormous donation of $20,000 from Palos Park couple Herb and Janice Walker. Foundation Board Member Herb and wife Janice sponsored the recent opening of our 52nd Treasure Chest Program at Cleveland Clinic Children’s and Pediatric Institute in Cleveland, OH. This program will provide our services to more than 600 brave young Cleveland area cancer patients each month.
“I joined the Treasure Chest Foundation to help raise money to support the ongoing operations and to add new treatment centers for providing toys to young cancer patients. Now that the Cleveland Clinic Treasure Chest program is open, I look forward to sponsoring more programs this year,” said Mr. Walker.
Treasure Chest Foundation CEO and Founder Colleen Kisel said, “We feel so blessed and honored to have the support of the Walker family. Their donation will help support thousands of children and teens who endure years and years of unending cancer treatments by rewarding the little ones with a toy, gift or gift card after every procedure.”
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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 25th anniversary of remission from the disease earlier this year.
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.
