The Peru Gazette

PERU, N.Y. –– Sept. 10-16 is National Suicide Prevention Week, and an amazing superhero without a cape will be in Peru to help students and educators kick off their new school year with HOPE (Hold On, Possibilities Exist).

Pat Fish of Sweethearts & Heroes will work in the Peru Central School District on Monday, Sept. 11 and Tuesday, Sept. 12.

Sweethearts and Heroes is a student empowerment and empathy activation team that aims to prevent bullying and suicide, focusing on the basic components of social-emotional learning (SEL). Sweethearts & Heroes offers a profound, engaging signature presentation that calls for HOPE, Empathy and Action; Circle, which is built on the ancient ritual of communicating in a circle to build empathy; and BRAVES Buddies, which trains older students in bully drills that they, in turn, teach to students in lower grades.

The Sweethearts & Heroes team is Tom Murphy, Director and Founder of St. Albans, Vt.; Ret. U.S. Army Sgt. Rick Yarosh, a HOPE expert and motivational speaker from New York who was burned severely while serving in Iraq; and Pat Fish, BRAVES and Circle Leader.

Murphy has called Peru High School Sweethearts & Heroes’ “flagship school.” While in Peru on Sept. 11 and 12, Fish will facilitate Circle work and touch base with his BRAVES students about their spectacular, ongoing efforts with the multi-grade, anti-bullying program. (For more on Circle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q286yIL9L1E)

Under the tutelage of teachers Jen Guay and Lucas Perez, Peru students ran the Sweethearts & Heroes BRAVES program during the 2021-2022 school year under a Phase 1 course called “Leadership & Human Studies.” Nearly 75 students are now registered in BRAVES 101 and BRAVES 102, and one student is in BRAVES 103. According to Matt Berry, Peru High School Principal, more teachers and counselors are supporting the program, and a community project is a goal for this year’s BRAVES students.

Additionally, 400 of 564 Peru students surveyed last year participated in Circle. Berry and other school officials are noticing that the growth of Circle calls for a more systemic approach — but, simultaneously, they do not want to dilute the energy and enthusiasm surrounding Circle in Peru.

“We actually have a good problem to solve,” Berry said. “We’re getting great interest.”

Murphy added, “We’re ready to kick off the school year by cultivating compassion and empathy in Peru. We must stop students from making destructive decisions and help them treat each other with compassion, kindness and empathy. We make our messages sustainable in schools so that they also have an eventual and sustainable effect on the local community. The spider web effect is powerful and incredible, and there’s concrete evidence in Peru.”

To ensure such sustainability, Sweethearts & Heroes created The HOPE Classroom, a digital subscription service for various grade levels and school sizes. This value-packed offering can allow Sweethearts & Heroes to be in every school in the U.S. For more information, visit https://thehopeclassroom.com/.

Berry and his staff are delving into The HOPE Classroom. He said The HOPE Classroom is “tangible and usable, but not drowned in layers of curriculum.” He pointed to one particular unit — “Knowing Yourself” — and said teaching self-awareness at a young age is important.

“The HOPE Classroom is a great springboard for so many things — for students and educators,” Berry said. “It gives an instructor and a student tools to be on the same page, at the same time. I would love to hear someone say, ‘This is not important stuff.’ It’s a strong reminder about humanity and a necessary one.”

For more than 16 years, Sweethearts & Heroes has presented what Murphy calls “‘the ‘stop, drop and roll’ of bullying” to more than 2.5 million students in school districts from New England to Hawaii and north into Canada. Sweethearts & Heroes also tailors its presentations and workshops for businesses, non-profits and civic groups. Murphy said, “We go where we’re needed. That’s what heroes do.”

In 2021, Sweethearts & Heroes released 13 Pillows For Affective Teachers. This novel covers the themes of HOPE, Empathy and Action in the Sweethearts & Heroes curriculum. 13 Pillows is based on real students and teachers that Sweethearts & Heroes has encountered. Murphy co-wrote the book with Brian McKeon of New York. 13 Pillows is available on Amazon. Digital or printed copies are available upon request. The audiobook is on Audible. (On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/13Pillows)

For more information on Sweethearts & Heroes, visit sweetheartsandheroes.com.

Or watch these short, impactful trailers:

•https://youtu.be/SWY6Lr3LWaY 

•https://youtu.be/RnNW42RPhpQ  

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sweetheartsandheroes/ 

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChmbRNNgpGWkMRIUxSS-bGg