The photos of the Elburn Lions youth football team that wore pink socks this season to raise awareness for breast cancer now are posted. The team wore the socks in honor of teammate Tanner Robertsen's mother and grandmother, who both have breast cancer.

You can see the photos by clicking here.

Twelve-year-old Tanner Robertsen dashed toward the end zone in his muddy green football uniform on Saturday, flanked by his Elburn Lions teammates, adding the final touch to what was to be a victory that propelled the Lions to a first-place finish in the Aurora Superstars Youth Tackle Football League.

But, in the long run, the touchdown wasn’t nearly as important as what Tanner and his teammates were wearing with their green uniforms as they rushed toward that end zone – pink socks.

Tanner has a good reason for his apparel. He has two close family members battling breast cancer – his mom, Donna Robertsen, and grandma, Loretta Jobin of Sandwich. Donna was diagnosed two years ago in the summer of 2007. Jobin was diagnosed this April. Tanner wore the pink socks to honor them.

“[Donna] is doing as well as a cancer patient can do,” said Donna’s husband and Tanner’s father, Mike Robertsen. “It never leaves your mind. It’s an up-and-down swing. It’s a challenge every day, and she’s met the challenge very well.”

Tanner, a sixth-grade student at Kaneland Middle School, first asked Elburn Lions head coach Jay Strang if he could wear the socks four weeks ago, the first week of October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“You bet you can wear pink socks,” Strang told him.

His mom remembers that first game well.

“I cried the first time he came out with his on,” Donna said. “The fact that he wanted to do it – it’s an emotional thing, anyway. And then to have to have your kids go through it. It’s hard, too. It was emotional for me and my mom.”

The next week, Mike and Donna were in for another surprise. Tanner’s teammates had asked Strang if they could wear pinks socks, as well.

“We’ll all wear pink socks,” Strang told them.

And the team would continue to wear the pink socks through the rest of the season.

“To see these kids support him,” Mike said, “that’s where the beauty of this is.”

“It was really overwhelming as far as feelings go,” Donna said. “I was overwhelmed with the support he got from his other teammates.”

Tanner, who plays quarterback, has been in youth football for four years. Mike said he has never seen anything like this.

“Every time I see it, to me, it’s wonderful to see that kids of this age care about these kinds of things,” Mike said, “and it’s great to see that my son is not alone with his feelings. They are there by his side.”

Donna then e-mailed me after our talk:

“This has not been about our family only. It just started out that way. It’s for everyone who has either had someone they know battle cancer or lost someone to cancer. Because if we find a cure for one cancer there will be other cures to follow. In the time that you read this article, two more women have been diagnosed with breast cancer. So if our story touches one person, then we have done our job making people aware the need for a cure. Imagine a world without breast cancer. I can!”

• To see photos of the team, please click here.

I celebrated Halloween sporadically as a kid.

My brother and I weren’t allowed to celebrate Halloween through much of our childhood because of religious reasons. And I stood by that decision 364 days of the year.

(To clarify, we did celebrate Halloween before the family started going to church. We have pictures of me as a toddler in the creepiest clown costume ever conjured. My brother was dressed as a cowboy. My mother loved him best.)

But while I agreed in principle with the decision not to celebrate Halloween, it became a much tougher candy bar to chew on when the actual day rolled around and we had to watch other kids 1) get to wear awesome costumes and 2) get free candy for wearing awesome costumes.

Our mother could sense this some years, though, and would let us throw together a quick costume – usually an old sheet with holes cut out for the eyes or a cowboy hat – and go on a quick tour of the neighborhood gathering as much candy as we could in as short of a time as possible – the theory, I guess, being that if we hurried, God wouldn’t catch on to what we were doing.

As the years went by, though, I began to see Halloween less as a time for devils and demons and more as a time for fun costumes and sweets.

And by the time I reached my junior and senior years of college at Indiana University, I was ready to join in the costume fun.

My junior year, I went to my classes as John Cusack from “Better Off Dead.” My senior year, I went to my classes as Peter Pan. (College does strange things to your mind.)

I’ve dressed up just twice since then. The year after college, I wore a hastily put-together cowboy costume for a church Halloween party – or, as the church called it, a harvest festival party – that was a pull-string away from being a dynamite Woody from “Toy Story” costume.

And then a few years ago I wore an even more hastily put-together Bruce Springsteen costume after realizing that all I had clean in my closet was a red bandanna, a white T-shirt and jeans. (Ah, the pre-marriage days.)

While my own opinion of the holiday has changed since childhood, I certainly don’t condemn anyone who chooses not to celebrate Halloween. My mother still doesn’t, and neither do some of my friends. Everybody has the right to decide which holidays they wish to celebrate.

But I’ve come to enjoy the simple pleasures of Halloween – eating candy that’s not been grabbed by the hordes of costumed children sifting through town and carving pumpkins (or – in my case – thinking about a cool design and never getting around to carving it).

And, maybe more importantly, what other day would it be OK for me to dress like Bruce Springsteen?

• Joe Grace is the editor of The Chronicle. Write to him at jgrace@kcchronicle.com or call him at 630-845-5368.

We've all heard of day-old pizza – a wonderful treat, especially cold – but year-old cake?

My wife and I decided to save the top part of our wedding cake for our first anniversary, which we celebrated on Sunday.

It had been sitting in our freezer since last October, wrapped in a box and a plastic bag, idling by while frozen dinner roommates came and went.

When we finally removed it from its frozen home on Sunday and opened the box, we quickly saw that it had developed a mild case of freezer burn. Easy enough. Butter knife, stat. A cut here, a cut there, and the cake was all better. We dug out a piece for both of us and sat down to enjoy it.

Before I go any further, though, I should mention that I have issues with food and expiration dates. I don't eat anything after its expiration day. As soon as that date passes, the food might as well be poison as far as I'm concerned. That's right. One minute past midnight, perfectly edible food suddenly becomes an invitation to death's door in my mind. That milk just became spoiled. Sorry.

So, I wasn't exactly looking forward to year-old wedding cake despite the lovely symbolism of it. Symbolism is no substitute for preservatives. Cake should be eaten within a day or two after baking. I might have a piece after three days, but only after convincing a family member to taste it first.

I had to try this, though. It was our wedding cake, after all. I forked out a piece of cake – carefully avoiding the buttercream frosting (I have my limits) – and carefully put it into my mouth.

I'd love to tell you it tasted as good as I remembered it. (This would be a lie in any case. My wedding day is a complete blur. I'm fairly sure I said "I do" at some point in the festivities, but the rest is a little hazy.)

It tasted like year-old wedding cake. I took one more bite and gave the rest a proper burial in the trash can.

My wife didn't mind, and the rest of her cake joined its brethren not too long afterward.

After all, while we said "in sickness and in health," nothing was mentioned about year-old wedding cake.

I'm fairly sure, at least.

Anna Wright, 10, a fourth-grade student at Davis Elementary in St. Charles, is collecting cleaned and gently used coats and winter accessories for Hesed House in Aurora. This is the second year in a row that Anna is collecting winter apparel for Hesed House.

Anyone interested in donating to Anna’s coat drive should send an e-mail to her mother, Mary Beth Wright, at mbwright1@yahoo.com.

Last week, Chronicle photo editor Sandy Bressner headed out to the Crypts of Campana Haunted House in Batavia to see how a haunted house comes together.

I'm glad it was her and not me. I hate haunted houses.

Why? It's simple. I don't like people jumping out at me, especially high school students who – as we learned last week at St. Charles East – can pass around a sickness faster than mosquitoes in a swamp.

And, if you take a look at the pictures Sandy took last week by clicking here, it seems that while these students might not have the swine flu, the zombiefication process certainly has begun in some of them. And that's communicable, too, folks.

I just want to take the opportunity to congratulate everybody here at The Chronicle who won an award this year. Listed below are all of the winners.

The following are the awards The Chronicle received from the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association:

Best Features Section:

Third – Inger Koch, Laura Bussie, Eric Schelkopf – "Spark!"

Best Single General Feature Photo:

Third – Joe Grace – "Cupcakes make people happy"

Best Single Sports Photo

First – Rob Winner – “Barnes scores 10 points off the bench for Bulldogs”

Third – H. Rick Bamman – “Knights sophomore Serpa leaves game early”

Best Single Sports Column

Third – Jay Schwab – “Bitter-sweet in this field of dreams”

Best News Story Series

Second – Kate Thayer – “Kane County’s Treatment Alternative Court”

Best Single Technology/Medical Story

Second – Brenda Schory –  “ ‘He’s our top DUI officer’ ”

The following are the awards The Chronicle received from the Illinois Press Association:

Illinois State Bar Association Lincoln Media Award for Best Legal Media Coverage

Honorable Mention – Kate Thayer

Personality Photo

Second – H. Rick Bamman

Feature Writing

First – Brenda Schory – "Family upset over burial cost, 'teddy bear' suggestion"

Sports Section

First – Jay Schwab, Kevin Druley, Nick Gerts

The following are the awards The Chronicle recieved from the Illinois Associated Press Editors Association

Best Newspaper Web site

First – Staff

Business Story

Second – Jonathan Bilyk – "Harnessing the Wind"

Third – Jonathan Bilyk – "Bond Market Hits Cities Hard"

Enterprise Reporting

Second – Bethany Krajelis – "Still A Burning Issue"

General Excellence

First – Staff

Headlines

Third – Jarrod Rice

Sports Columns

Third – Jay Schwab

Sports News Story

Third – Kevin Druley – "No Crying As Cougars Delayed"

Features Photo

Second – Rob Winner – "Flip"

Third – H. Rick Bamman – "Road House"

Sports Action Photo

Second – Rob Winner – "Vault"

Sports Feature Photo

Second – Rob Winner – "Celebrate"

Spot News Photo

Second – H. Rick Bamman – "Traffic Stop"

In the newsroom Tuesday morning, a couple of us were talking about how we need to be careful with how we handle H1N1 stories, making sure that we don't over-hype the actual danger or contribute to any sort of hysteria.

I should have known better than to start such a conversation.

Because, of course, at about 11 a.m., we received an e-mail in our general editorial inbox (editorial@kcchronicle.com) from a reader that St. Charles East High School had experienced an exodus of students from its halls Tuesday and Monday, many because of flu-like symptoms.

Uh-oh.

After a quick call to confirm this information, the reporting fun began. And at the end of the day, 972 kids either didn't show up to St. Charles East on Tuesday or left early, and the school was closed through at least Friday.

Even the possibility that this could be linked to the H1N1 virus was enough to get widespread attention. Just about every TV news media outlet within driving distance was at the school district's administration building for a 5:30 p.m. news conference, which meant many of us had to fight through our natural gut reaction of "Chicago TV is out there! The far western suburbs must be in danger!"

(Don't over-hype the actual danger. Don't contribute to any sort of hysteria.)

At this point, it's hard to tell just how much of this actually is related to H1N1. It's not often you see a regular flu outbreak bring down so many students at once, but it's not unheard of, especially after Homecoming weekend when most of the students hung around each other Friday and Saturday. A cold, damp football game plus students massed together is a wonder equation for spreading sickness.

While we shouldn't over-hype this, we do need to take it seriously. If you're sick and running a fever, don't go to school or work. It's that simple. No point in getting everybody sick. If you or your kid is seriously sick and you're worried about it, go to a hospital. And it's probably not a bad idea to follow the government's advice and get vaccinated if you are pregnant or in an age bracket that is considered at the highest risk.

But this isn't SARS or the Ebola virus. It's the flu, albeit a seemingly nastier version of it. Drink plenty of fluids. Rest. Get better in a few days. If you have other medical conditions that put you more at risk, consult your doctor.

Overall, I think the school was right to close down through Friday. With more than 40 percent of the student population out, it simply makes sense.

And I'm willing to take my own advice, as well. If I start running a fever, you won't see me anywhere near the office. Unfortunately, unlike the St. Charles East students, I can work from home if need be

One of my favorite parts of the work week is filming and editing our weekly prep football Web video – "Chronicle Football Insider."

I haven't been able to make it out to many games this year – a shame for a person who got his newspaper start covering high school football games – but I love to read the game stories we put in our weekend edition and then to watch sports editor Jay Schwab and sports reporter Kevin Druley talk about the games Monday when we film the show.

An ESPN production, it certainly is not. But what makes it so much fun to film is listening to Jay and Kevin's insights about the games.

For relative newcomers to The Chronicle – Jay has been with paper for three years and Kevin just had his one-year anniversary – the pair have put together what I believe to be the best sports section in this community. I'm proud of both of them, as well as our sports copy editor, Nick Gerts.

At the recent Illinois Press Association awards luncheon, we received first place for best sports section in a tough division that included the likes of the Northwest Herald, the Aurora Beacon News and other similarly sized newspapers throughout Illinois.

Jay and Kevin's success is directly related to the work they put into the product. They go to as many games as they can in the work week. The number of stories the pair will write in a week consistently amazes me. More importantly, they care about what they're doing, and it shows in our sports pages.

But back to "Chronicle Football Insider."

Jay and Kevin might not be the Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon of the Tri-Cities and western Kane County. But they know their stuff.

They know what allowed Kaneland to keep up and almost surprise Geneva last Friday night.

They know the secret to St. Charles East's success this year. (Though, it's not really a secret – other teams don't score against East's defense; it's that simple.)

And for me, filming the pair talk, it's wonderful to see two people banter about something they know so well. Extra work typically isn't something most of us get hyped up about, but putting this Web show together certainly has felt more like a hobby than work to me. And that's always a good feeling.

You can watch this week's Web show today. It should be up about 1 p.m. at www.KCChronicle.com.