Oswego Student Creates Video To Honor Front-Line Workers

OSWEGO, IL — Inspired by the heartfelt messages from her teachers after all schools in Illinois cancelled classes for the whole year on April 17, a freshman from the Oswego East High School created a video to honor the front-line workers serving the community amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Priya Modi started tearing up when she saw the video from her instructors, consumed by the daunting realization that "I could no longer go back to school and things would be different," she said.

" The thoughtful messages that were placed in the video made me realize that we should just hope for the best. At the same time, I saw on the news that there were not enough face masks for every resident, so I decided to try to make face masks to help support first responders, and anyone in need," Priya said. "However, making face masks didn’t really interest me since so many others were doing it. Instead, I wanted to be creative and send unique positive messages to many."

Priya has always had a penchant for writing poetry, and as she wrote a poem about COVID-19, she decided to turn it into a song. Using the words, she converted them into lyrics for the song "Warriors of COVID-19: Rise from the Dark."

"I chose to write music and play the piano. After experimenting with various tones, I discovered something that appealed to me," she said. "Several hours later, I had composed the background music. Despite having little experience in music, I believe that I made a wonderful video."

It was a rigorous task with composing, recording the music and creating the video with photos and thank you messages. After countless hours of hard work and several tries, the video was done on April 23.

"She has no background in singing and playing keyboard piano, but she wanted to do something for first responders who keep our community safe," said Priya's father Tejas Modi. "She wants to be a unique and touch everyone’s heart during this pandemic. To me, she is not a professional singer, but with her can-do attitude, she went above and beyond by expressing her view for our community."

Priya said she is still adjusting to remote learning and reconciling to the stay-at-home order, and this video is her message to the community "to keep smiling, move forward in life, and just hope for the best outcome."

"We should not let the fears of COVID-19 get to us and one day, this will all be over," she said. "We have fought against pandemics before, and we will win this one if we all work together."

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