The Gerald R. Claps Career & Technology Center Key Club and the Salk Middle School Builders Club present the Toys For Sick Children Holiday Benefit Dinner, to be held on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 6 p.m. at the Claps Career & Technology Center, 150 Abbey Lane in Levittown.

The Key Club and Builders Club are international student-led organizations, which provide its members opportunities to perform service, build character and develop leadership and is sponsored by the Levittown Kiwanis Club. The two clubs invite all residents to join them in helping a sick child's stay in a hospital be as happy as possible by bringing a new, unwrapped toy to the dinner.

The admission fee is $10 per person and a new, unwrapped toy. Dinner will be provided by the culinary department. The menu includes fresh garden salad, chicken parmesan with penne and coffee, tea and dessert.

Those interested in attending are asked to RSVP no later than Nov. 18. Please send name, address, school affiliation, number of people attending, phone number and payment (make checks payable to LCTC Key Club) to GRC Career & Technical Center, 150 Abbey Lane, Levittown, NY 11756, Attn: Lillian Creedon, Key Club Advisor. Those who cannot attend the dinner and would like to make a toy or monetary donation can send a check made payable to "Toys For Sick Children" and send it to the same address. All monies collected will go toward equipment a child or hospital may need.

Toys For Sick Children Inc. was founded by Levittown resident and MacArthur High School graduate John Theissen. The goal of this organization is to provide children's hospital and childcare facilities with recreational and therapeutic equipment. Theissen founded the nonprofit organization after surviving a brain tumor at the age of 17. It was during his recovery that he befriended a 7-year-old girl who was being treated for leukemia. Theissen soon noticed her loneliness, discovering her parents would drop her off for weekly treatments on Mondays and not visit her until picking her up for the weekend.

On the day of the hospital's Christmas party, Theissen remembers the little girl excitedly anticipating her family joining her for the festivities. As time passed, she realized that they were not coming. Seeing the disappointment in her eyes and with Theissen too ill to escort the girl himself, his parents took the little girl to the party where she told Santa all she wanted for Christmas was a teddy bear for her friend John, who was too sick to join them. Theissen never saw the little girl again, but her memory still remains in his heart. He said he was so touched by her gift and has been motivated to help sick children ever since.

Since its founding in 1992, the organization's annual toy drive has collected over 200,000 new toys. In addition, donations have enabled them to provide televisions, VCRs, video game systems, wheelchairs, arts and crafts supplies and more to needy children.

In 1997, Toys For Sick Children became a nonprofit organization whose goal is to help sick children year round by providing hospitals and child care facilities with therapeutic and recreational equipment. These items enable the children to feel more at home during their stay, they provide the children with a means of entertainment and relaxation and they offer children the comfort of having activities available both in the playroom and at bedside.