CINCINNATI — The state of Ohio is home to more than 800,000 veterans.
About 40% of them are older adults, and many are cared for in nursing homes and senior living communities. One outreach organization is working to make Valentine’s Day a little more special for those who served.
Lyttie Ward is an eighth-grade student at Franklin Jr. High School.
The reason she’s making Valentines for Veterans is simple.
“Just to make them feel good and know that people worry about them, even if it’s not their family,” Ward said.
Honoring service members is something she holds close.
“My older brother, he just got back a couple months ago from being overseas for about a year,” she said. “It was really hard.”
Since 2021, the Blue Star Families chapter from Dayton and Southwestern Ohio has made a special pledge to Ohio veterans every February.
“We send Valentines all throughout the community to veterans who may be in a nursing home, or may be at one of the veteran hospitals,” Chapter Director Geri Maples said. “Sometimes we’ll go and pass them out and hand them right to them, which brings a smile to their face, which is pretty incredible.”
Many of the students making the cards, like Ward and Will Truesdell, are military-connected students in Purple Star schools.
“It just really shows, we’re trying to show how much we appreciate what they do for us, how they made a sacrifice to protect us and our freedom and rights,” Truesdell said.
When the group first made the cards in 2021, they could send out about a hundred Valentines. Now, since the outreach has spread, they are sending more than 1,000.
“We have them coming from the Boys and Girls Club, as well as our homeschool and even our chapter-sponsored boys and girls’ basketball teams has joined in,” Maples said.
Originally the cards were sent to the Veteran Homes in Sandusky and Georgetown, but this year there are more to go around.
“Because it’s grown so rapidly, we are going to be visiting some retirement centers, and some other places that maybe don’t often get these types of special gifts very often,” Maples said.
For Ward, whenever she finishes a card, the feeling is simple but special.
“It makes me feel pretty good,” she said.
“Being the spouse of a wounded Iraq veteran, it really is special, and he sees it too,” Maples said. “Often times, these will be sitting on my desk and he comes in and is like ‘What’s this?’ and it warms his heart too.”