Argo’s Angel Perez took a half-hour walk with an elderly woman he had never met.

And it was a walk the senior offensive lineman will never forget.

After a Sept. 23 fire, Perez and his teammates helped guide and comfort residents who were displaced from the Summit Senior Housing building across the street from the school. They were brought from their residences to Argo’s cafeteria, which is only a five-minute trek.

But Perez was with a woman who was having trouble walking.

“I felt really bad because the lady said she had asthma and couldn’t walk fast,” he said. “I kept telling her, ‘That’s fine, that’s OK.’ She kept taking breaks, and I didn’t want to push a lady who could barely walk. She didn’t have a cane or anything.

“It took about a half hour to get there.”

Argo coach Phillip Rossberg, however, felt a sense of pride watching his players jump into action and help out. He also had to smile when he saw Perez, a 5-foot-9, 297-pound center, patiently escorting a senior citizen.

“He’s got one of those fun personalities,” Rossberg said of Perez. “Taking that nice lady for a little stroll … they had to stop all of the time. I told him, ‘You have the toughest task out of everybody.’

“He just giggled about it and said, ‘That’s no problem, coach.’ ”

According to the Summit Fire Department, there were no injuries, but roughly 50 people were evacuated. Football players, plus other Argo students and staff members, pitched in to help.

“This is true meaning of community,” William Toulios, Argo’s superintendent, said in a statement. “They are truly inspiring what we are growing here at District 217, which is the culture and caring of our community.”

The players held the same sentiment. They were in the library studying film when they got the call to help during the emergency, confirmed senior wide receiver/defensive back Jayvon King.

“It’s important to help the community,” King said. “Members of the community come and watch us play football every week, and we want to do anything that can help them.”

Senior quarterback Jacob Vanallen tried his best to make the displaced seniors happy.

“It was really unexpected,” Vanallen said. “We went into the cafeteria and started helping all the people coming in. I tried to smile as much as I could.”

Senior linebacker/tight end Jakub Jarosz said some of the players helped wheel residents into the cafeteria and tried to keep them company for a while, giving them water and snacks.

“Some of them were there for six or seven hours,” he said.

Rossberg said that when the team was asked to pitch in, there was no hesitation.

“They just got up and said, ‘Let’s go,’’’ he said. “It was awesome. Our community is diverse and on the lower end socioeconomically, so it was very gratifying for me to see them go out and help the community any which way we can.”

Rossberg said even just talking with the elderly was a benefit for his players as well as the senior citizens.

“They were chatting our players up,” Rossberg said of the seniors. “I don’t know the extent of the damage and who lost what, but just being able to get their minds off it was pretty cool.

“Some of them had some good stories and talking about football in the 1960s and telling the players ‘back in my day.’ It was little things like that where the kids could hear from different people really stood out to me.”

Perez walked away with a profound memory from the incident.

“It was sad,” he said. “But it was also an enlightening moment.”

Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.