If you’ve ever had a crappy Valentine’s Day, you’re not alone.
Douglas College psychology student Jacquoline Martin had one when she first moved to B.C. from Ontario a couple years ago.
“I didn’t know anyone here,” she says. “I had no friends.”
She decided she could either drown her sorrows in a tub of ice cream or spend some time brightening other peoples’ day, so she went out to the nearest mall – Burnaby’s Lougheed Town Centre – bought 50 roses and handed them out to strangers.
“It probably looked super shifty to some people,” Martin says with a laugh.
But among the skeptics who asked what religious group she belonged to or how much the flowers cost were a few people who were simply touched.
“There was this lady, and she had just broken up with her boyfriend,” Martin says. “I gave her the rose and I also gave her a Disney Valentine’s Day card because I was giving those out as well, and she looked at me, and she’s like, ‘This is really sweet of you. I really need this today.’”
That’s when Martin decided she wanted turn her Valentine’s Day gesture into an ongoing project.
Project Valentine’s Day, now in its third year, was back Sunday, with Martin and about 35 volunteers handing out 300 flowers – carnations this time, funded through online donations – at the New Westminster SkyTrain station and in Vancouver on the corner of Robson and Burrard streets.
They’ll be back at Lougheed Town Centre for Pink Shirt Day on Feb. 24 and Douglas College.
“It’s just to let people know that they’re loved,” Martin says.
For more information, visit projectvalentinesday.com.
