Chicago Girl Hosts Family Toy Drive for Children Fighting Cancer

Chicago girl Leilani Villaseca (age 11) is giving back to children fighting cancer. Leilani collected brand-new toys and gifts from family and friends during the Christmas holiday season all with the aim of benefitting children fighting cancer.

Leilani donated a van full of toys and gifts. Shortly after her successful toy and gift drive, Leilani visited the Treasure Chest Foundation’s Orland Park warehouse and shared her experience, “I wanted to bring a smile to all the kids who have cancer. I don’t want them to think about being sick,” said Leilani.

POTCF Founder and CEO Colleen Kisel is especially grateful to young Leilani for hosting her fourth-holiday toy drive this past December for children and teens fighting cancer. “Thanks to the overwhelming success of young Leilani’s toy drive little ones fighting cancer will benefit from our services across the nation,” said an appreciative Ms. Kisel.

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 14,600 young cancer patients in 61cancer treatment centers in 20 states across the nation and in the District of Columbia. 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 27th anniversary of remission from the disease in March of 2020.

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.