Lester: How Blackhawks' viral video at senior center happened

Jennifer Meyers had hoped to score some free Chicago Blackhawks tickets for seniors at Park Ridge Centennial Activity Center through the team's “What's Your Goal” program. But the center's activities manager nearly keeled over when she got head Coach Joel Quenneville instead. He showed up at the front desk offering to be her “assistant” for the day and teach local residents floor hockey.

“I was completely in shock,” Meyers tells me. “It was so surreal.”

<h3 class="leadin">'Here come the Hawks'

Right behind Coach Q, assistant coaches Mike Kitchen and Kevin Dineen, announcer Pat Foley, national anthem singer Jim Cornelison and the Hawks Ice Crew all barreled off a coach bus, taped a rink outline onto the floor of the center's multipurpose room and helped slip Blackhawks jerseys over the seniors' heads. Quenneville served as referee of what he called “old time hockey” while Foley gave a play-by-play. (There was no checking, a review of the video shows.)

“One lady said to me, 'this wasn't on our bucket list but now it's checked off,'” Meyers said. “They were so excited to tell their families and their grandkids.”

What's more, she says, the center can keep all the equipment the Blackhawks brought with them.

<h3 class="leadin">A massive game of telephone

Remember that game of “telephone” we played as kids - where a message is whispered from one person to another and gets all mixed up by the end? That's what happened March 11 amid confusion about whether business tycoon and GOP front-runner Donald Trump would make an appearance at the Northwest Suburban Republican Lincoln Day Dinner in Rolling Meadows. Joe Folisi, who chaired the dinner organizing committee, tells me he learned during cocktail hour that Trump's Chicago rally had been canceled because of protests, and shortly after, he was approached by an attendee who offered to reach out to Trump's staff to invite him to the Meadows Club event. First, Folisi said, he checked with the campaign of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who was headlining the event. His people weren't thrilled. Trump's campaign ultimately was extended an invite under the condition that he would appear after Cruz finished his talk. But, Folisi said, the campaign wasn't responding to emails, and he ultimately decided to “just consider it a no.”

<h3 class="leadin">All at once

You might have noticed pictures of Cook County State's Attorney Democratic primary winner Kim Foxx's daughter crying on stage as results were announced on Election Day. What happened? Foxx says 13-year-old daughter Kai was struck with all sorts of emotions at once - pride in her mom's victory as well as the realization that she might not have been as supportive during the long months of the campaign as she could have been. An understandable reaction for anybody, even without the difficulties of being a teenager.

<h3 class="leadin">Kudos

Congratulations to Highland Middle School sixth-grader Julia Zhang from Libertyville, whose painting was selected from thousands of entries across the state for the first place prize in the Illinois Arts Education Week poster contest. Eleven-year-old Julia's painting notes there's magic in the arts, and it depicts a rabbit being pulled out of a top hat decorated with musical notes.

<h3 class="leadin">Remembering Frank Jr.

“You still talk funny because you're Italian,” the late Frank Sinatra Jr., quipped recently in a video he recorded specially in honor of Arcada Theatre owner Ron Onesti being awarded the Italian American Executives of Transportation 2015 “Man of the Year” award. Onesti calls Sinatra, Jr., whom he knew for decades and who died last week in Florida, “an old school pro who was a mentor and a friend ... can't believe he is gone.”

<h3 class="leadin">How many?

I was tipped that no fewer than eight attorneys were present in federal court late last week representing current and former members of the College of DuPage in the suit filed by two former financial administrators for wrongful termination. Trustees are being individually represented by various law firms, though the school is expected to be on the hook for the tab.

<h3 class="leadin">Small world

Taping a segment with news partner WBBM-AM on Friday, I was delighted to find myself in the studio with one of GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner's newest appointments to the Illinois Community College Board. Nick Kachiroubas also doubles (or, more accurately, triples) as Crystal Lake city clerk and as a DePaul University political professor. He's a former member of the McHenry County Board.