Within the walls of the historic Linville-Edom Elementary School are two 3rd grade classrooms, right next door to each other.
The two teachers, Jen Dove and Victoria Cortes, came up with an idea, after seeing something similar online, to request Valentines to be mailed to their classes. It was a way to expand the borders of the small town – encompassing geography, the joy of receiving mail, and the kindness of strangers.
A simple Facebook post on the Linville-Edom Elementary School FB page went viral within the community. People shared it to friends, who shared it to their friends, and before you know it, there was a response bigger than both teachers expected!
“Hearts Around the World” was simply a project to spread kindness, along with learning about the world. The teachers asked for Valentine’s Day cards from all 50 states to be mailed to the 3rd grade class. All that were received would be marked on a bulletin board, with special little thumbtacks the teachers ordered. As the cards came rolling in, the map had to be expanded to include places from out of the United State! The cards were all taped to the walls in the halls surrounding the classrooms- anywhere there was an empty spot!
As of this interview, the students had excitedly received 207 cards! Every day, both classes would gather in the hall outside of the classrooms, where the bulletin board was, and listen for 15 minutes or so, as the teachers opened the day’s mail, reading the messages in the cards. One student would get to come up and stick the thumbtack into the corresponding state or country. At the same time, they were also learning what the abbreviations of each state are. At this writing, they still needed a card from Rhode Island, but had received multiples from other states. In the mail delivery that day, along with ones from the US, there were ones from Amsterdam in The Netherlands, Germany, and later from Australia ( see photo).
The card from France set the whole class giggling – a VERY large manila envelope with the stamps from overseas was opened to reveal a VERY tiny little card in an equally tiny white envelope! Obviously, the card was too small to be mailed!
There was a card from someone in NJ who had a grandmother who attended Linville-Edom in 1912, and their mother graduated from the school in 1947 when it was a high school! That elicited many ooohs and aaahs from the students. There were several cards from grandparents of students, and some from people who had attended the school in more recent years, but had moved out of state. Many people included information about the state where they were writing from. What amazed the students and teachers alike, was how their little project had spread by word of mouth, resulting in responses from around the globe.
The students get to respond to the people who sent cards – in some cases the 3rd grader is writing back to another child – passing on the excitement of receiving mail to the child who mailed a Valentine card to the class.
The project ran through the end of February, but don’t be surprised if there aren’t still cards trickling in. It is gratifying to know that people unknown would take time out of their day, to spread kindness with a card and a note. Hearts Around the World was so successful, it may become and annual event!
