Having students make Valentine's Day cards can be a good arts-and-crafts project.
But for the Pot Spring Elementary School first-graders in Michelle Doyle's class, it was much much more.
Two days before the project, Doyle told her first-grade students that their valentines would be sent to seriously ill and disabled children around the world.
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As they cut out, colored and decorated their cards on Jan. 27, not all students remembered why they were doing it.
But for 6-year-old Ethan McWilliams, the project took on a special meaning.
"I have a cousin that went through the same thing," Ethan said as he decorated his valentine. "He had really bad cancer and had to die, so it's very special to me."
The valentine he made — which read, "Be strong! Don't give up, 'cause I know you will feel better" — went to a child he would likely never meet.
Still, Ethan expressed desire to make another one for his late cousin.
"I want to make one and put it on a balloon and send it up to the sky," he said.
The meaning and the message behind on each card varied across Doyle's classroom — and in four other first-grade classes, two second-grade classes and two kindergarten classes. But a passion for the project was evident in every student.
Hassan Hallal, who sits across from Ethan, wrote, "You are awesome and I am six" on his card, which he made for a sick child, "because they don't get to do stuff for Valentine's Day," he said, "and we're doing something for them."
Jaylin Mitchell, 7, said she hoped her valentine, which read "Be Strong! Don't Give Up!" would brighten the day of a sick child somewhere.
She even added a personal touch: to go along with her pink shirt and pink plastic flowers in her hair — she made her valentine on pink construction paper and pasted on pink foam hearts.
Across the room, Kevin Graziano scrawled, "Be brave" across his paper heart in slanted, multi-colored writing.
Though the children treated it as a regular Friday morning, Doyle said the project has far-reaching effects that her students would benefit from.
"Our school sent 200 Valentines to these courageous children," Doyle said. "That means 200 more lives have been touched in a loving way by our students, and 200 children just learned a little more about compassion and how they can truly make a difference to another person."
As an educator, Doyle said she valued the chance to teach her children a lesson about how to give back to others.
"I believe that any time we, as educators, can provide our students with meaningful authentic learning experiences, the greater the impact," she said. "It is my hope that by giving children these opportunities, and planting seeds in their elementary education, that they will grow into compassionate, empathetic young men and women that will continue to find ways to make our world a better place."
The project was organized by Kimberly Nelson, a mother of a kindergartner and second-grade student at Pot Spring whose daughter was in Doyle's class the previous year.
Doyle said Nelson is always coming up with projects such as the valentines — an idea she found online being organized through the Illinois-based nonprofit, Inspiration Through Art.
Nelson said that sometimes it can be hard to make the children understand that there are ways that even they could give back and help others.
"You don't always have to give money," she said. "There are other ways to give back."