Helena, Montana – Valentine’s Day cards were made by students in the Helena area at schools including Jim Darcy, and will be delivered to hospice centers and nursing homes, among other community locations.
“I think that everybody should get a Valentine’s Day card because you don’t always feel like you have people there supporting you, and I think that you always should know that you have people that are supporting you,” says third-grade student Kennedy Alger.
Alger and the other students in her class put a lot of effort into making many of Valentine’s Day cards to spread some friendliness and happiness to neighborhood residents who could be in hospice care or receiving home health care.
“I wanted to write it ‘cause not everybody has friends, and some people just need to have something to make them feel loved,” says 3rd grader, Chace Hedden.
The third year that this program has facilitated interactions between students and senior citizens in the Helena region. Participating students come from East Helena, Clancy, and Helena Public Schools.
The event’s creator and Area Manager for Inhabit Home Health and Hospice, Hazel Noonan, claims that she established this program to make people’s days more enjoyable who might be feeling lonely in their latter years.
“They just light up. They absolutely light up, just with the receipt of the Valentine, they just, and to be acknowledged and remembered. And again, like I said, with the memories, it just, kind of a flood of memories,” says Noonan.
Noonan alone received 3,000 Valentine’s Day cards from local children the year before, and she anticipates receiving much more this year.
“I think it’s the beauty of child’s artwork. It, you know, the notes open up backwards, the misspelled words, whatever, the little handy artwork, it just brightens the residents’ day,” says Noonan.
