Valentines for Vets program provides touch of home

This Valentine’s Day, letters, cards and other written greetings will be warming the hearts of thousands of veterans.

That’s the hope of organizers of the Valentines for Veterans program, a volunteer-led effort that works to collect homemade valentines throughout the suburbs and distribute them to current and former members of the armed services.

The project began 15 years ago at the Glendale Heights village hall. Gina Thorson, the village’s public relations manager, recalls being in the hospital at the time and reading a column about Irv Kupcinet’s Purple Heart cruise for veterans.

“I thought, ‘What about these people who are in these hospitals who have given the ultimate sacrifice? Who lets them know we’re grateful for all they do for us?’” she said.

What started as something small among village employees spread by word-of-mouth and advertising throughout the area. Thorson now collects valentines from church groups, Scouts troops, schools and organizations she doesn’t even know about who send the greetings anonymously.

“This isn’t just a Glendale Heights event. It’s a community event,” she said.

The early February blizzard delayed some planned valentine-making events at elementary and high schools by a week, but the valentines are being collected and most are being packaged and mailed to their receivers before Valentine’s Day, Thorson said.

Last Wednesday, hundreds of valentines were added to the collection by students at the four schools in Glenbard High School District 87.

At Glenbard East, organizer Dawn Zatt, a career adviser, said there were 300 students who came to the cafeteria after school to make cards.

She said some of the notes will be sent to graduates and members of the Glenbard East family who are veterans. That likely includes Matt Spartz, an alumnus and first lieutenant in the Army who has written guest columns for the Daily Herald since his deployment last spring to Afghanistan.

Thorson and village staff package the valentines, estimated to be in the thousands, to send to 30 overseas bases, veterans administration medical centers such as Hines, North Chicago and Jesse Brown, and VA nursing homes.

She said a valentine may be the only piece of mail some veterans receive all year. She was told that in some nursing homes, the cards stay on residents’ walls all year, until they receive new ones the year after.

“It makes people feel good,” Thorson said. “You just want them to know they’re not forgotten and you want to thank them for their service and hope they have a good day.”