5 Ways to Spread Love on Valentine’s Day
After all, kindness is love in action
When I was growing up, the most important part of Valentine’s Day was going to the store to pick out a box of valentines that I would deliver to my classmates at school. I remember spending way too much time looking over all of the different themes being offered — Peanuts characters, Hello Kitty, superheroes — making sure to pick the perfect one.
In hindsight, it was probably a silly ritual but it’s also a sweet memory of a bygone era. I loved carefully selecting a card for each classmate, neatly writing his or her name on the “TO” line and mine on the “FROM” line, sealing each one with a little sticker in the shape of a heart. The best part was watching my friends’ eyes light up when they opened the cards, and receiving their loving messages in return. My most visceral memories of Valentine’s Day are not about the cards themselves, but rather how good I felt showing kindness and honoring my friendships.
Those were simpler days, and with the current state of the world, Valentine’s Day has lost a bit of its shine and purpose. I’d like to suggest we reclaim a bit of the simplicity of my childhood experience. Let’s view the day as an opportunity for children and families to spread love, kindness, hope, and friendship, all of which are in short supply and desperately needed. We can move away from spending money on gifts that people don’t really need while allowing kids to flex their empathy muscles and experience the warm, wonderful feelings associated with helping and caring for others.
Here are a few ways to spread the love of Valentine’s Day to those who might be struggling in your own community and around the country.
Give Dignity and Beauty to Women in Crisis
With just a few small toiletry and beauty items purchased at a dollar store, you can create beauty bags for women living in homeless or domestic violence shelters in your community. Items can include lipstick or lip balm, shampoo, a toothbrush and toothpaste, fuzzy socks, hand lotion, and soap. You can use a gallon zip lock bag, or a small paper gift bag decorated with stickers. Be sure to include a cheerful note reminding her that she is beautiful.
Send Love to Children Living in Foster Care
On any given day, there are more than 400,000 children living in foster care in the United States. Together We Rise is a national nonprofit working to transform the way children experience foster care. During Valentine’s Day, they spread love and hope by sending “Love Makes a Family” gift baskets to foster families. The baskets include a stuffed bear and a soft blanket. Or you can donate new pajamas to children who are experiencing homelessness, are in foster care, or living in domestic violence shelters in your community.
The Pajama Program is a national nonprofit organization that promotes and supports a comforting bedtime routine and healthy sleep for children facing adversity. Since 2001, they have provided over 7 million cozy pajamas and inspiring storybooks to children, as well as critical resources for parents and caregivers to support children at bedtime. The Pajama Program provides resources to help you host a donation drive, and identifies a local organization that will accept your donations.
Connect with an Isolated Senior
Create colorful, simple valentines with messages of friendship, love, and support, and deliver them to a local nursing home or senior outreach program. You can also bundle up a stack of letters and send them to Love For Our Elders or Letters Against Isolation. Both websites provide more detailed instructions and information.
Create Valentines for Our Veterans
Our veterans and active-duty military often spend holidays alone or far from loved ones, and receiving a cheerful message from your family can brighten their day immeasurably. Soldiers Angels is a military support organization with a simple motto: May no soldier go unloved.
You and your kids can create cheerful valentines expressing love and support, and mail them (along with a $1 donation per card) to Soldiers Angels. The $1 donation helps to defer the cost of packaging boxes of valentines and sending them to deployed troops around the world and VA hospitals here in the United States.
Notice the Heroes All Around You
Encourage your kids to write notes of gratitude to the many people who teach, coach, and help them every day. The crossing guard or security officer at school, the classroom teacher, the cafeteria worker, the doorman or maintenance worker in your apartment building, the postal carrier or delivery person — anyone who interacts with your child on a daily basis would be delighted to receive a heart-shaped note, a small box of candy or even a sticky note with a few scribbled words of appreciation.
Never underestimate how a kind word or action from you and your kids can change someone’s day and make them feel loved, which is, after all, the purpose and power of Valentine’s Day.
Natalie Silverstein, MPH, is an author, speaker, consultant, and passionate advocate for family and youth service. Her first book, Simple Acts: The Busy Family’s Guide to Giving Back, was published in 2019. Her second book, Simple Acts: The Busy Teen’s Guide to Making a Difference will be published in early 2022. Natalie is the New York coordinator of Doing Good Together, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit. In this role, she curates a free monthly e-mail listing of family-friendly service opportunities distributed to thousands of subscribers. Her personal and parenting essays have appeared on a variety of blogs including Grown and Flown, Red Tricycle, Motherwell, and Mommypoppins. She is a frequent public speaker and podcast guest. Natalie holds a master’s degree in public health from Yale. She lives in New York City with her husband and three children.
