Toy Con Toy Show of Bridgeview is giving to children and teens fighting cancer. The annual charity toy show, held on December 8 at the Bridgeview Community Center, featured 60 toy dealers, the Midwest Garrison and a visit from Santa. When the show was over, Toy Con had raised more than $1,600 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 or gift card in 45 hospitals 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.
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Toy Con Toy Show co-founder Terry Mannix said, “These brave kids who are fighting cancer really need comfort and support. We want to brighten their day of treatment, and if a toy helps them feel better, we are all for it.”
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Treasure Chest Foundation CEO and Founder Colleen Kisel appreciates the tremendous support provided each year by the show’s organizers. “Toy Con Toy Show was the very first organization to host a toy drive 16 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 8,600 young cancer patients each month in 16 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 20th 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.
