Bremen High School Goes On 'GooseChase' As Homecoming Alternative

MIDLOTHIAN, IL — The coronavirus pandemic has put a stop to many things this year, but the Student Council at Bremen High School refused to let it take away the magic of their homecoming.

With the traditional high school dance being out of the question due to the pandemic, students held a virtual meeting with their activities sponsor Amanda Chelepis and began brainstorming.

While Chelepis is World Language Teacher at Bremen High School, in the summer she works as a manager at a restaurant. Last year, to help boost team morale, her restaurant staff participated in a group scavenger hunt activity through an app called GooseChase. She remembered that everyone really enjoyed the activity and brought up the idea to her Student Council members as a school-wide scavenger hunt.

The teacher got the approval of the entire Student Council body and members started preparing to send their high school peers on a wild “goose chase” across their neighborhood.

Each class level in the Student Council broke into teams — Freshman team, Sophomore team, etc. The teams began designing “missions” or tasks that would be presented to students through the GooseChase app.

In total, 96 missions were created that attempted to incorporate different interests of all the students and also promote pride of the school and community.

• Sing the Bremen fight song in front of the BHS sign with your siblings/family. Points = 600.
• Complete the following math problem in chalk: 28 X 36 showing work; 400 points.
• Take a video of outside the public library while holding a library card and saying your favorite book (title and author); 500 points
• Make a TikTok to the song "The Monster Mash" in a costume; 1000 points.
• Take a picture outside the village hall; 400 points.
• Shop at a small business and take a pic shopping and eating there; 500 points.
• Carve a pumpkin and take a selfie with it before and after; 600 points.
• Make a poster thanking a teacher with positive affirmations, taking a selfie with it; 1000 points.

To prove that students had completed missions, they had to submit photos and/or videos to the application that would then show up on the public “GooseChase” feed for other peers to see.

“We wanted to make this an opportunity that everyone could get involved in and that would be supportive of local businesses and our community during the pandemic,” Chelepis said.

Approximately 108 students signed up for the Bremen High School goose chase, which is about 50 percent of the roughly 200 students who buy tickets to the dance each year. The scavenger hunt was held the weekend before Halloween on Oct. 24 and Oct. 25, giving students two days to participate.

“We chose to have the event take place over two days and on the weekend because we understood that many students have part-time jobs. It was important to us that everyone who wanted to participate had an opportunity too,” Chelepis said.

Chelepis also pointed out the costly expense of homecoming and the tickets, which— during the pandemic— may just not be possible for some families. Therefore, it was important to the Student Council that this would be an affordable option for students.

Through an educational package with the GooseChase application and company, Chelepis was able to purchase 200 GooseChase spots at $1.00 per participant. This made the total cost of the homecoming event, $200.00. The cost was covered by the school and the event was then offered as a 100 percent free experience and opportunity to students.

“We received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback,” Chelepis said. “Many students told me they thought it was funny seeing their classmates running around all over the neighborhood as they tried to complete missions.”

Chelepis recalled one student telling her that when they went to complete the mission that asked students to “roll down Belly Button Hill” located in Midlothian’s Kostner Park, the student was surprised to see others already there completing the same task.

Chelepis enjoyed seeing student submissions. She said her favorite submission was called, “Wipe Out” where parents would spray their students with water while they pretended to surf to the “Wipe Out” theme song. She also enjoyed seeing missions completed with students and their family members.

With 1,842 total missions completed by students, the competition was clearly tough, but no student could catch up to Bremen High School Sophomore Sofia Pritchett, who ended up completing 94 of the 96 missions. The only missions she missed was finding a deer in a Midlothian Forest Preserve as well as finding a butterfly.

For winning the goose chase, Pritchett received a $100 Visa gift card and a dozen homemade tamales created by a Bremen High School parent. The 2nd place winner, Valentina Fabian, received a $50 Visa gift card and a dozen homemade tamales. The 3rd place winner, Dayanara Lemus, received a $25 Visa gift card and a dozen homemade tamales.

As a bonus, any student who completed 40 missions or more was also entered into a raffle to receive a $25 Via gift card.

Bremen High School District 228 is located in the southwest suburbs of Chicago and serves the communities of Midlothian, Posen, Tinley Park, Markham, Hazel Crest, Country Club Hills and Oak Forest.

District 228 serves over 5,000 students and employs 613 full and part-time staff members. Bremen High School, in Midlothian, opened its doors to students in Sept. 1953. Since then, District 228 opened three additional schools including Tinley Park High School in 1961; Hillcrest High School in 1967 and Oak Forest High School in 1970.

For more information, visit the district's website.