Bremen High School District Community Vaccinates 1,300 People

OAK FOREST, IL — Bremen High School District 228 worked with Jewel-Osco to vaccinate District 228 staff members and community members.

In late January, Jewel-Osco reached out to D228, requesting to partner with them for the initiative, according to the district.

Dr. Bill Kendall, Superintendent for D228 was thrilled and thankful for the offer from Jewel-Osco, the district said. Instead of only vaccinating staff members, the organizations decided to work together to vaccinate as many community members who are 65 years of age or older too, according to the district.

D228 rallied together and in approximately two weeks had 1,300 South Suburban community members registered for COVID-19 Pfizer vaccinations, the district said. Majority of those registered were 65+ community members who live in the surrounding areas of Posen, Midlothian, Markham, Hazel Crest, Country Club Hills, Oak Forest, and Tinley Park, according to the district. All of these neighborhoods are a part of the communities that make up D228.

The school district said the primary goal was to vaccinate as many people as possible who are in underserved communities, or who are 65 years of age or older and are having a difficult time securing vaccine appointments.

“Many of our senior citizens don’t have access to computers or aren’t refreshing internet pages daily to try and secure a COVID-19 vaccine,” said Jamie Bonnema, District 228 Public Relations Specialist. “When I talked to people on the phone they were so thankful for a phone call and someone who was simply patient enough to take the time to register them.”

To reach 65+ community members, the school district said it got in touch with local villages and asked for assistance in finding senior citizens who need the vaccine.

“Secretaries, administration, all different kinds of staff members were willing to answer phones and lend a hand,” Bonnema said. “Everyone just wanted to help as many people as possible.”

The Midlothian Police Department and the Village of Midlothian jumped on board and soon also began helping the district call and reach out to community members, according to the district. The district said it succeeded in registering 1,300 people – the exact amount of doses the district was provided by Jewel-Osco.

“It was a lot of work, but I cannot stress enough how thankful and kind everyone was,” Bonnema said. “Nobody complained. Nobody asked ‘why do I have to do this?” People stayed late at work to help and went above and beyond to make this happen.”

On Feb. 11, the district says all 1,300 community members showed up to the Bremen High School Field House to be vaccinated with Dose 1. Jewel-Osco employees administered shots and roughly 60 District 228 staff members lent a hand checking people in, keeping the building clean, setting the building up, directing traffic, greeting people, pushing people in wheelchairs, helping people get through the vaccination process, according to the district.

“Most of these employees were on their feet from 8:00 am to roughly 6:00 pm and maintained a smile on their face all day,” Bonnema said. “I didn’t even have to ask them if they would volunteer to help out for Dose 2, they came to me and asked if they could help again because they enjoyed it so much.”

On Thursday, the same community members showed up to receive their second dose, according to the district.

The district said that the Midlothian Police Department wanted to know how they could help further, and made a goal to reach more 65+ and underserved community members, the district said.

According to D228, 1,000 more people were vaccinated on March 5, and this time from even more communities, including Robbins, Blue Island and Homewood.

“To put it simple, this community is amazing. Our school district is grateful in more words than we can ever explain to Jewel-Osco, to the Midlothian Police Department, to all of our local Villages, and to anyone and everyone who leant a hand with these vaccination days. I think I can safely say it meant a lot to our South Suburban communities," Bonnema said.