Oswego Family Creates Online Trivia Night to Honor Daughter

Jenna Brown, Founder of Love Smiles created an online Trivia Night titled “Sydney’s Giveback Birthday Bash” to benefit the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation. The charitable fundraiser was in honor of one-year-old cancer patient Sydney Brown’s first birthday. Sydney was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma at four months old.

The cost to play the online trivia night fundraiser was $10 with an option to donate to the Treasure Chest Foundation toy drive fund. When the last trivia question was answered, Loves Smiles raised $600 used to purchase toys and $180 in gift cards.

When asked about the Treasure Chest at Ronald McDonald Children’s Hospital where Sydney is being treated Jenna had this to say, “It was a seven and a half hour chemo day. Sydney was starting to get fussy, which no one could blame her. The nurse went out to the Treasure Chest and found a Fisher Price Glow Sea Horse that plays nursery rhymes. It was soft and its belly glowed. My daughter instantly forgot she was upset and hugged that seahorse so tight. It saved our day.”

Treasure Chest Foundation CEO and Founder Colleen Kisel extended her most sincere gratitude to the Brown family for their efforts in organizing such an innovative alternative to the traditional toy drive. Colleen said, “I always thought this was a great idea, but especially now during the pandemic, a fundraiser with less contact really works!”

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 14,600 young cancer patients in 62 cancer 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 28th anniversary of remission from the disease earlier this month.

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 website at www.treasurechest.org.