Revamped Lisle Turkey Bowl still fights MS
Most traditions are cool. Otherwise they wouldn't become traditions.
Occasionally, though, they have to change, they have to evolve.
Grandpa can't always sit next to you at the dining room table and entertain you with tales of holidays past.
Little sister won't always want to share her wish list with Santa - although you might be wise to warn her that if she really wants a Subaru this Christmas, she should play it safe for at least one more year.
Heck, even the Cubs won the World Series, ending a 108-year tradition of not winning the World Series.
Brian Quick knows all about traditions, and how sometimes, through time and circumstance, they have to change.
Maybe you recognize his name: He's the Lisle guy who for more than 40 years has been gathering his buddies to play touch football on the day after Thanksgiving in what they called the Turkey Bowl.
They started when Quick and most of his friends were freshmen at Lisle High School and the guys used the game as a fundraiser to support the Multiple Sclerosis Society and Brian's younger sister, Lisa, who has been battling MS this whole time.
MS is a cruel disease that causes communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body. The signs and symptoms vary widely and there's no known cure.
Leading up to this year, Quick and his football-loving pals had collected $145,775 for the cause.
A great tradition, right? But here's the problem: The guys aren't high school kids anymore. Most of them are in their 50s and things have shifted.
Instead of sprinting out for long passes, they kind of saunter. Just about everybody's got a sore knee or a sore hip or a swollen ankle or something. Recovery time after games, which used to be measured in minutes or hours, is now more like days and weeks.
So this year, Quick decided to bring the Turkey Bowl inside and turn it into a true bowling event. He reserved eight lanes for two hours at Lisle Lanes and hoped to attract 40 people to raise money for the cause.
He didn't quite make it, but he came close.
"The revamped Turkey Bowl was a big success," he says. "I had around 33 participants. Whole families participating, friends and even total strangers."
And no one, it seems, left limping.
The event raised almost $3,000, he says, and next year he's hoping to attract enough competitors to fill all 32 lanes.
So, see, traditions really can morph into something new.
Grandpa may not be at the dining room table, but he can live forever in your heart. That Subaru really can show up in your sister's driveway (Santa and all those TV commercials told me so).
But as Brian and Lisa demonstrate each year - whether on the football field or in a bowling alley - the best tradition is family. And while that may evolve, it will never really change.