Teachers Julie Gellerson and Ashley Setter, who teach a first- and second-grade multi-age classroom at Gowanda, have each participated for the last several years and know the importance of the program. “Usually, people think of valentines as lovey and gushy things and we talked about how nice it is that Valentine’s Day can be used to just show appreciation,” Gellerson said. “Why not offer this to people who risk their lives for us?”

Gellerson and Setter said the children enjoy participating in the program each year and over the years, each student has given their best effort to make the valentines. The students know who their words are going to and that they matter to the people on the other end of them.

“They all stand out as being wonderful,” said Gellerson. “They really take their time and do their best work in printing and writing because they do know this is going to someone who will smile because of it.”

But Gellerson, Setter, and the program as a whole is also good for the purposes of education. It presents the opportunity for the students to learn more about the organization the people receiving the valentines work in.

Submitted photo Students create valentines for veterans in Gowanda.

“We talk about the branches of the military and some differences in those branches,” Setter said. “There’s so much more to that. They’re going to dangerous places for us a lot of the time and sometimes it’s even people you know. We have a student whose grandpa is a veteran. … It’s a nice way to connect to the country and do nice things for the people who serve it.”

While Gellerson and Setter have not received direct feedback from a veteran who has received a Gowanda valentine, they have been told by former veterans just how big of a difference they do make to those receiving them.

The valentines were collected by the school and had to be submitted by Friday, Feb. 4 so they could get to their destination at the right time. As it is a districtwide event, more than just Gellerson and Setter’s classrooms participated. Students in Sarah Janiga’s fourth-grade classroom also took part. Because of how Gowanda embraces their ties to veterans, this initiative means a lot to everyone involved.

“They’re so excited and happy to be able to send a message to someone they don’t know, a stranger, but someone who does something so amazing,” Setter said.