Last week, the Hope Squad held its annual weeklong event that promotes mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Hope week seeks to celebrate the hope and love that fills our Jesuit community. The culmination of a year’s worth of planning is finally happening, and I’ll be recapping the highlights of each day.
Monday:
On Monday the 14th Hope Squad – led by Mr. Ornelas – was stationed outside the cafeteria where they had paper and pens to write kind notes to our fellow classmates. These little, hopeful reminders were then distributed later in the week. Along with that, they had a Polaroid camera and board where you could take photos with your friends to help show your support for each other.
Tuesday:
Tuesday was our patented yellow tie day where we asked all the students and faculty to wear a yellow tie. At lunch, Sage distributed hope floats, including an ice cream float station for everyone to enjoy.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday we held our prayer service which was led by the Hope Squad members. This prayer service featured a panel that consisted of Joey Trigiani ’22, Raul Hernandez ’23, Joshua Chacko ’23, Antonio Dimafelix ’24, and myself; Gustavo Aldrey ’24 monitored/led the panel. The main conversation revolved around the behind-the-scenes operations of the Hope Squad and how we deal with stress and our own mental well-being along with the duties on Hope Squad.
Thursday:
All of Thursday’s activities started around lunchtime as Sage handed out cookies at lunch. After school, we passed out stress balls to help lower stress and anxiety. Along with that, there was another opportunity to write notes for your fellow Jesuit brothers.
Friday:
The culmination of all our work this week ended on Friday with the hope walk. From 11-1 pm and 2-2:30 pm, we invited everyone out to Postell stadium to come and walk around the track to spread hope. Everyone received a paper with 4 reflection questions for each turn in the track. We encouraged no phones out at this event, as it was meant for reflection and spending time with friends. The notes previously written in the week were also distributed anomalously. We hope you used this event to spread hope to your brothers and relieve stress in the middle of your day.
I’m honored to have helped with my first hope week, and I hope everyone opened his mind to the message we were spreading that week. Hope week is our opportunity to spread mental health awareness and promote mental well-being throughout the school, but most of all it’s our chance to spread hope. So, we hope you will join us again for Hope Week 2023!
Stay tuned to The Roundup for more Hope Squad news!
