Oak Forest Resident and Nursing Student Engages in Act of Kindness

Oak Forest resident Ashley Gallegos, a student from nursing clinical practicum at Moraine Valley Community College, positively impacted her community through “The Act of Kindness” project.

This course is part of the pediatric experience for third-semester students. The goal of the project is to create community awareness, particularly in the pediatric population, of how a simple act can positively impact others. Students were asked to pick an initiative and choose an area within their community to implement it.

One student, Ashley Gallegos decided to donate a basket of toys to the Treasure Chest Foundation. Ashley said, “I wanted to help children with cancer. I have family members fighting cancer.”

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 16,100 young cancer patients in 66 cancer treatment centers in 21 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 29th anniversary of remission from the disease in March of this year.

If you would like further information about the Treasure Chest Foundation, please contact Colleen Kisel at 1-708-687-TOYS (8697) or visit the Foundation’s website at www.treasurechest.org.