Glendale Heights sending thousands of valentines to veterans

No one wants to feel lonesome on Valentine's Day.

And what if you're also not feeling well? And you're stuck in a lonely hospital room. No visitors. No chocolates.

Nicole Lewis doesn't want to picture that, especially for veterans in hospitals and homes. So she helps send handwritten messages — thousands of them — that remind those who served of how much they mean to us.

“It's just amazing how simple of a gesture 'thank you' seems to us, but how truly appreciated a 'thank you' is to them,” says Lewis, the assistant to the village administrator in Glendale Heights.

Valentines for Veterans began about 20 years ago, the work of Gina Thorson, the village's public relations coordinator who died in 2012 after battling leukemia. Today, it coincides with National Salute to Veteran Patients, a weeklong tribute that begins on Valentine's Day and encourages civilians to visit and volunteer at Veterans Affairs medical centers.

“It makes people feel good,” Thorson said in a Daily Herald interview a year before her death. “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.”

Lewis has carried on Thorson's mission and hopes 16 large priority mailboxes will be enough for all the cards the village has collected this year.

Scout troops, students and even Glendale Heights natives who have moved away pen many of the valentines.

“It was really thousands of students and thousands of cards,” said Gilda Ross, the student and community projects coordinator in Glenbard High School District 87.

At all four high schools in the district, students recently filled cafeterias and drew inspiration from meeting veterans who served in World War II, Korea and other conflicts while they decorated their valentines.

“There's a very exciting synergy about it, knowing that they're all doing this together,” Ross said.

A variety of clubs and teams recruited students for the project, while the Advocating Character Through Service, or ACTS, Committee, a group of parents, provided the art supplies and snacks.

Each year, Ross and fellow organizers like to take a sneak peek before the valentines end up in the mail. And they're usually touched by the thoughtful, eloquent words that students — teenagers, mind you — express.

“We always read the cards afterward and we sit and cry together,” Ross said.

Lewis has written one herself, with hearts, flags, stars and that simple message of thanks.

“It's just fun to get into the spirit and participate,” she said.