For Valentine’s Day this year, Heart2Heart volunteers created and delivered 1,514 cards to seniors, spreading love across South Florida in our biggest Valentine’s Day outreach yet.
The outreach combined the efforts of our cardmaking volunteers, community groups and our Heart2Heart drivers. Together, they reached seniors in 45 care centers and 25 private homes with messages of love and encouragement.
Bobbe Gates, program director at Majestic Memory Care Center in Hollywood wrote to tell Heart2Heart how much their residents loved and appreciated the cards they received.
“The smiles on their faces were priceless. Some of them carried the cards around for a couple of days,” she wrote.
More than 20 Heart2Heart cardmaking volunteers rallied to the effort. They were joined by community groups including Pinnacle EMS, Westminster Academy high school students, Team Horner, a local Boy Scout troop, Nourishing Lives, ANF Group, Ti ChouChou Manman and the SonRise Assisted Living & Health Foundation.
The cards Heart2Heart collected were incredibly creative and beautifully crafted. The time and love volunteers invested in creating the cards and writing messages of hope was apparent across every page.
The seniors Heart2Heart serves outside of care centers also were included in our Valentine’s Day outreach. The Devoted Ladies Bible study group, which partnered with us to deliver Christmas gifts to many of the same individuals, again donated their time and generosity. They put together 26 bags of goodies and gift cards for our seniors living independently in their private homes.
Heart2Heart staff collected the 1,500 cards and goodies bags in our offices. The cards were allocated to 45 different care centers we regularly interact with based on the number of residents in each center.
Then our drivers kicked into action. On the weekend before Valentine’s Day, 26 drivers delivered packages to 70 different locations across Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.
“It makes our hearts full to reach so many seniors this year,” said Riana Samaroo, Heart2Heart’s community outreach director. “Our volunteers are incredible, and so many participated in this outreach. We were blown away.”
Heart2Heart collects cards throughout the year to deliver to seniors who need encouragement and love. To participate in our cardmaking program, click here.
Check out this Instagram post, too!
