Team Joel Sullivan Realty is asking for your help to make some local kids with cancer have a great day!
We are hosting a toy drive for Zach’s Toy Chest. This is a non-profit that collects toys, books, gift cards, and everything fun to give to children at local hospitals in treatment for cancer. ZTC is hosting their 2nd annual Summer’s Eve with Santa at Marble’s Kids Museum in July. Children will be able to enjoy a night of fun and games and receive a bag where each child can fill it with 3 toys to bring back to the hospital with them. This is a day these kids get to leave the hospital if only for a few hours to have some fun to forget about their illness. Our goal is to fill 75 bags. Please visit zachstoychest.org for a complete list of items requested. All donations can be dropped off at our office at 100 E. Ballentine St in Holly Springs. Help us make this evening an event to remember for every one of these courageous children.
Donations will be accepted at office until July 10
Thanks to everyone who made this possible! The collection of toys for Christmas in July for kids with cancer was a huge success.
ZACH’S STORY:
I started this organization after my son, Zach, went through cancer in 2008. Zach had a form of childhood cancer called Neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a solid tumor cancer that begins in the nerve tissue of the neck, chest, abdomen, or pelvis but usually originates in the abdomen in the tissue of the adrenal gland. It usually affects children under 5 years old. We were very fortunate to catch Zach’s during a sick visit to his pediatrician. He had not had any symptoms of pain, but merely the sniffles.
Zach was just shy of 10 months old when we were given this devastating news. He went through a very hard surgery on March 4, 2008 to try and remove his tumor – but the surgeons could not remove it because of its size and location. Zach had chemotherapy at the outpatient center, the Valvano Day Hospital. This is where I started noticing what the center was lacking and the idea of Zach’s Toy Chest was planted.
Zach underwent his second surgery on June 26, 2008 – one month after finishing chemo. He had a much faster recovery time after most of his tumor was removed.
He continued to do well and on September 18, 2008 he had his final surgery to remove his central line. We were over the moon.
This foundation we created will provide the children receiving cancer treatments something to pass the time with and make their day a little brighter. My mission is to help them focus on fun and play – not cancer. Cancer takes so much from us and the kids that they need this…and it helps the adults too.
Fighting cancer one toy at a time!
Holly Schwab