Orland Park Boy Hosts Fourth Annual Cups 4 Cancer Lemonade Stand

Young Austin Bielski (age 11) of Orland Park is giving once again to children and teens fighting cancer. Austin recently held his Fourth Annual “Cups 4 Cancer” Lemonade Stand in front of the family home in Orland Park to benefit the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation. At the end of the hot summer two-day event, more than 100 people stopped to quench their thirst and helped Austin’s lemonade stand raise $7,675 for the Treasure Chest Foundation, an Orland Park-based, a non-profit organization that provides comfort and distraction from painful procedures to children and teens diagnosed with cancer by providing toys and gift cards in 62 hospitals nationwide. During the past four years, Austin has raised an impressive $10,628.55 to benefit children and teens fighting cancer. Austin wanted to do something to help kids fighting cancer. He liked the idea of a lemonade stand and got to work creating a name for his new endeavor. Austin said, “I like the sound of Cups 4 Cancer, it rhymes. My great-grandmother Dorothy Barron supported the Treasure Chest and I wanted to continue supporting the Treasure Chest Foundation because of her.”

Austin’s Mom Candice Bielski added, “I wanted to make this lemonade stand an annual tradition because it’s such a great cause and it’s hard to watch these kids go through cancer treatment. Cancer does not stop because of Covid.”

“The POTCF is especially grateful to Austin for his enormous donation of $7,675,” said Colleen Kisel, Founder and CEO of the Treasure Chest Foundation. “There are so many kids impacted by childhood cancer today. Just look at what one little boy can do.”

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 in March of this year.

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.