An Illini love story, Chester Street dance edition ...
“I recall walking around the corner of Altgeld Hall on my college tour and my first view of the Quad,” says WGN sponsorship solutions director Diana Dionisio. “The Quad was green, the trees leafy and the students ambling.
“There was a filtering of light, the sun peeking through the trees. It was in that moment that I knew U of I was the place for me.
“My home within a home quickly became Gregory Hall, as most of my advertising classes took place in that building. As chance would have it, one of the eight guys in my classes — the rest all gals, even in the larger classes — was a friend named Rich.
“He was more of an acquaintance, really. And then one night, after a post-group project celebratory bout at Chin’s — the restaurant with ‘volcanoes’ drinks and the giant goldfish with the largest lips on record — I was walking home with pals.
“As I crossed a street close to my apartment, Rich pulled up to a stop sign and honked his horn. He was on his way to bring his roommate’s wallet over to him at a local bar, with a fully diagramed 3D model of a town in the back of the car. I told him we were going dancing at Chester Street and invited him to come along.
“Now, nearly three decades later, with three boys and the eldest about to graduate from the exact same advertising program in which we met at UIUC, we’ve come about as full circle as you can get.
“Oskee Wow Wow.”
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