John Theissen: Helping children since 1992

John Theissen has one simple mission in life: to put smiles on children’s faces. For 22 years he has done that through the John Theissen Children’s Foundation, based in Wantagh.

When Theissen was a junior at MacArthur High School, he started getting severe headaches. In September 1988, when he was 17 and just starting his senior year, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was operated on that December, and spent most of the holiday season recovering in the oncology unit at Schneider’s Children’s Hospital. He met many children who were sick, and that inspired him to launch his foundation four years later.

In 1992 he held his first holiday toy drive to benefit children in local hospitals. He collected and distributed 800 toys, helping kids at three medical facilities. This year he fulfilled about 76,000 gift requests, which went to nearly 200 hospitals, agencies and child-care facilities.

Theissen, now 43, estimates that in 23 years of holiday toy drives, he has given out close to 850,000 toys. “Sometimes a smile is the best medicine,” he said. “I’ve seen it firsthand.”

Given his longstanding commitment to the children of Wantagh — and those all over Long Island — the Herald-Citizen is proud to name him its 2014 Person of the Year.

As Theissen’s foundation has grown, so has his national profile. Last month he traveled to Chicago, where he was a guest on “Steve Harvey” and talked about his work in a segment that aired on Dec. 16. His recent holiday party fundraiser at Mulcahy’s, in Wantagh, included guest appearances by “Long Island Medium” Theresa Caputo and two retired NFL players, the Giants’ Otis Anderson and the Jets’ Joe Klecko.

The event is one of the foundation’s major fundraisers for the year, along with the Freaky 5K, a Halloween-theme race in Wantagh each October. Theissen, who used to be a pharmaceutical representative, now devotes most of his time to the foundation, of which he is executive director. “It’s my life now,” he said. “This is my love.”