'Invisible Inspirations': Bremen High School Students Help Peers

OAK FOREST, IL — School-aged youth are living through the coronavirus pandemic under unique circumstances. Like many others across the country, schools have transitioned to online instruction, hybrid courses and more. It has been nearly a year since academia have been effected by COVID-19, and for those battling personal struggles, these times can be more challenging than they already are, for people of all ages trying to pass their classes.

In an attempt to ease stress and other burdens, four junior students from Bremen High School decided they would like to try and leave an impact in the lives of their peers during the coronavirus pandemic.

With the help of Gina Arguelles, Interact Sponsor at Bremen High School, and the school's Social Worker, Samantha Cravens, they came up with the project called “Invisible Inspirations.” As one might assume by the name of the project, these four students have asked to remain invisible or anonymous.

This project has the four students anonymously sending letters of encouragement, resources for self-care, prepackaged string and instructions to make a bracelet, stress balls and hand sanitizer to students, in an effort to remind their peers that "they’re in this together and nobody is alone."

“We created this group so our classmates know they’re not alone during this stressful time. We know that as students it is still an extremely stressful time and we want students to feel that Bremen is on their side,” says one of the students involved.

"When the students first reached out to me, I was so happy, I didn't know what to say! A group of teenagers, wanting to help their peers during this difficult time," Arguelles said in a statement. "I knew I wasn't going to be able to do this alone with them because of all of the mental health awareness components, so we were so happy when Mrs. Cravens was able to join us! But honestly, I was not surprised because we have great students at Bremen High School who are always craving to do amazing things. This one just happened to cross my path."

The group reached out to the District 228 Educational Foundation who approved a small grant to start the project. The students decided to first send packages to AP and Honors junior students who they felt were the most overwhelmed or stressed, and could use a kind gesture. The students mailed out their first round of inspirations in late December. In January, they will continue the project and distribute items to AP and Honors senior students.

Cravens said the project is valuable to students at Bremen because it is tangible proof that they are cared for by peers, as humans.

"This act of kindness communicates with peers they are not alone and that they are valued. It's incredibly easy to feel alone, isolated and misunderstood as a teenager/young adult," Cravens said. "These four students took their compassion a step further to say to their peers, 'I know you don't know who I am, but I want you to know I see you. You are important to me. You are important at Bremen. You are valued. Yes, you experience hardships, but you are surrounded by people who care. Let me support you too.'"

The juniors would like to reach every student at Bremen High School by the end of the year, but will need more funding in order to reach this goal. The district said that if anyone would like to support the Invisible Inspirations initiative, checks may be made out to Bremen High School's Interact Club, and dropped off or mailed to Bremen High School, located at 15203 S. Pulaski Road in Midlothian.