Make a Valentine for a local senior

It was 11 years ago that Petaluma People Services Center first invited the community to take a crack at creating original, handmade Valentines, with the notion of delivering them to local seniors who were enrolled in PPSC’s Senior Services Program. The Home Delivered Meals program was identified as an excellent way to deliver Valentines, simply adding the locally-made cards to the already operating system of delivering meals to Petaluma seniors.

Since then, the project has expanded, to say the least.

This year, with the community’s help, PPSC hopes to deliver a Valentine to every senior in southern Sonoma County.

“Even if you don’t live in Petaluma,” states a recent PPSC press release about the program, “you can help by lovingly making and penning a sweet message inside the Valentines we will deliver. Last year we received over 5,000 Valentines and were able to deliver Valentines to all the seniors throughout the county.”

Here is how to participate.

1. Make your own card and include a nice message. Craft as many Valentines as you like and send them to PPSC by Monday, February 8. Mail them to or drop them off at PPSC, 1500 Petaluma Blvd. S., Petaluma, CA 94954, Attn: Saint Valentine.

2. PPSC will take all the cards received by the deadline, and deliver them in time for Valentine’s day.

3. Please take a photo of your valentines and send them to admin@petalumapeople.org.

4. If you like, you can help by donating towards the purchase of stamps that PPSC will use to mail the Valentine’s Day cards.

5. Following are a few rules about what the cards should look like and how they should be signed.

• No glitter! It creates food safety issues.

• Please make your cards cheerful by using bright colors. You can decorate cards using paint, crayons, markers, collage or anything else you can think of.

• Please avoid dark backgrounds and religious symbols.

• Please write clearly in large print and avoid using abbreviation “V-day.” Please say, “Valentine’s Day.”

• Do not give out your address or suggest that the recipients write back to you. Initiating an ongoing correspondence is not appropriate.

• Please make sure that the cards are appropriate for the intended audience. That is to say, pretend it’s your sweet grandma, not your snarky teenage brother.

For additional information, or to ask questions, visit www.Petalumapeople.org or call 765-8488.