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Community Corner

T.E.A.M. Asset Program Provides Toys to Children with Cancer

Students at four 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 with all four Lincoln-Way high schools, New Lenox School District 122, Mackay Education Center, Manhattan School District 114, New Lenox Park District, Frankfort Kiwanis, St. Paul's United Church of Christ, Frankfort United Methodist Church, St. Peter's Church and the attendees of the Family Faire and raised more than 3800 toys, $185 in gift cards and $1000 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.

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Liz Gerske, Lincoln-Way East Asset Coordinator said, “It has truly been a delight to once again contribute to the POTCF. Since TEAM Asset became involved with this organization, we have contributed over 62,000 items and over $3400 during our ten-year commitment. We are proud to be able to put a few smiles on the faces of these children battling cancer and to support Colleen in her efforts.”

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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 of 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 9,000 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 non-profit organization that provides comfort and distraction from painful procedures to children and teens diagnosed with cancer by providing a toy, gift or gift certificate in 46 hospitals nationwide. Nowhere else in the nation does such a program exist. CEO 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 recently celebrated his 21st anniversary of remission from the disease.

 

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.

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