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SATURDAY DECEMBER 8 | SUNDAY DECEMBER 9 2018
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SPORTS
Show maven Lori Andre laces ’em up for ALS Walk for Life. P26
Molly Fisher quite a catch for LFHS girls hoops team. P24
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Delectable collectibles attract Antiques + Modernism Winnetka Show attendees. P14 FOLLOW US:
NO. 322 | A JWC MEDIA PUBLICATION
NEWS
TOYS FOR TOTS Evanston realtor encourages North Shore clients to give generously EDITED BY SHERRY THOMAS THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
One of the many fantastic causes we can all support this holiday season is the Marine Corp Reserve’s long-standing Toys for Tots program, and an Evanston-based real estate company is doing its part to make the season brighter for deserving young people. From now through December 13, the Evanston office of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services/ Koenig Rubloff Realty Group will serve as a dropoff location for the program — collecting new, unwrapped toys at its 2110 Central Street office in north Evanston. Toys for Tots staff then distributes the toys to less fortunate children. The organization requests that the donations not be stuffed animals, battery-operated or realistic war-type toys. “The Evanston community has always been wonderfully supportive of our Toys for Tots toy drive for the holidays,” says Pat Vaughan, managing broker of the Evanston office. “We thank everyone who donates for their generosity and desire to help brighten the holidays for kids.” Toys will also be collected at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services/Koenig Rubloff Realty Group offices in Winnetka and Lake Forest. For the full list of participating drop off sites, please visit koenigrubloff.com/pages/toys-for-tots. For more information about Toys for Tots, please visit toysfortots.org.
THE GOOD NEWS BEAR Dislocated knee injury in 2017 failed to mar Miller’s good-guy disposition BY BILL MCLEAN THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
Chicago Bears tight end Zach Miller and his wife, Kristen, share a chair in their living room in Lincolnshire. They are cuddling for a camera during a photo shoot, a straightfaced Zach looking down at a smiling Kristen. The camera clicks, clicks, clicks. The striking couple’s youngest child, 1-year-old Breckin, sits in a high chair about 10 feet away, pushing around — and occasionally eating — pieces of a snack strewn across the chair’s tray. The tot grabs a journalist’s pen and twirls it, plays with it. The journalist places a legal pad of paper on the tray. Breckin then puts pen to paper and scribbles … something. A letter? A blob? Maybe, just maybe, the Millers’ little guy has what it takes to become a sportswriter someday and maybe, just maybe, interview the Bears’ first-round draft pick in 2041. Zach and Kristen look away from the camera and right at Breckin, budding scribe. Both sport smiles now. Nearly a year ago, on October 29, 2017, Kristen — at home and watching the Chicago Bears-New Orleans Saints game on TV with Breckin, Bella (now 8) and Kash (7) — wore a look of worry. Worry morphed rather quickly into anguish as her husband, after having landed in an end zone with an apparent touchdown reception, stayed down. For too long. Players and medical personnel surrounded the 6-foot-5, 240-pounder. Zach’s left knee, in essence, had exploded, resulting in a dislocation and a torn popliteal artery. Had Miller been transported to the hospital with which the Saints had a contract, instead of one closer to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, he would have had to undergo an entirely different initial operation. “They would have had to amputate my left leg,” says Miller, who has had nine surgeries on the knee. “It’s been a long process, but I’m feeling better. I’m at Halas Hall (Bears headquarters, in Lake Forest) all the time,
Zach and Kristen Miller. PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANK ISHMAN
going to meetings, working out, practicing with the team. The Bears organization has been incredibly supportive, unbelievable, since this injury. [Bears Chairman] George McCaskey and his wife, Barb, stayed in New Orleans to be with me for two days, flew to Chicago and then returned to New Orleans to spend more time with me.” Miller had to spend three of the hardest weeks of his life in “The Big Easy”. Kristen Miller had received periodic
updates on Zach’s condition from Bears officials during the six-hour operation on Game Day. The last update was the best one: surgeons had saved Zach’s left leg. “Hearing that made my midnight flight to New Orleans less stressful,” Kristen recalls. What she heard from Zach, back when she was a sophomore at Bishop Neumann High School in Wahoo, Nebraska, and Zach Continued on PG 10
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