Toy drive at Grand Appliance stores to benefit child cancer patients

Grand Appliance in Crystal Lake will be accepting toy donations through the end of July as part of a toy drive aimed at giving “pediatric cancer patients a motivating boost,” according to a news release.

The donations will go to Orland Park-based Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation, said Meagan Gauri, executive director of The Grand Foundation, a nonprofit affiliated with Grand Appliance.

“Getting a cancer diagnosis to begin with is traumatizing and difficult,” Gauri said in the release. “Having that diagnosis fall to a child, as a parent, that’s got to be gut-wrenching. What the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation does, by making going to treatment a little bit easier to take, is wonderful.”

Gauri said she seeks out nonprofits that are doing great things in communities that Grand Appliance serves. Other beneficiaries have included nonprofits focused on education, literacy, the arts, veterans’ and first responders’ causes, diversity, inclusion and equity and food insecurity.

The Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation serves 14,600 children and teens monthly in 62 children’s cancer treatment centers across the country, including Ann and Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital, the Ronald McDonald Children’s Hospital at Loyola Medical Center, Cook County Children’s Hospital and Comer Children’s Hospital.

“We’re so grateful to have the Grand Foundation in our corner during this time of uncertainty – and during the summer, a time when things generally tend to slow down in terms of donations,” Colleen Kisel, founder and CEO of Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation, said in the release. “We guesstimate that we give away about 2,000 pounds of toys each month.”

Among the requested items are action figures; dolls and accessories; toy trucks and cars; toddler toy; jewelry, makeup, purses and scarves; journals; board games; arts and crafts; outdoor sporting goods like baseball mitts and balls; phone cases and chargers; and gift cards to Target, Amazon, McDonald’s or Starbucks for teens. Toys should be new and unwrapped. Stuffed animals are not desired.

The Grand Appliance location in Crystal Lake is at 1275 N. Randall Road.

Correction: This article has been updated to corrrect who said the second quote.