GREEN LAKE, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) - Someone has been anonymously leaving messages of support for small businesses in one Wisconsin town.

You’ve probably seen hearts in people’s windows, spreading hope during the coronavirus pandemic. Hearts have recently popped up in shops in Green Lake, but the owners didn’t put them there.

Fran Hill owns Dish in downtown Green Lake. While she’s been closed, she’s been organizing merchandise or restocking. One day when she got to the store, she spotted something in her window. “I saw the heart on the outside of my window as I was driving by,” said Hill. “I was like ‘oh that’s so nice, somebody put a heart in my window’.”

She noticed the same heart was in other shop windows too. It made her smile, and she thought that was that. Until she got inside. “I just completely freaked out,” Hill said.

“When I came in on the other side of the sign was the message to shopkeepers, that we’ll be here for you,” said Hill. Those hearts were about more than a smile: they were a promise. On the inside, where only owners and staff could see it, they said “we’ll be here when you come back.”

That anonymous good Samaritan has now sparked a trend. People have put more signs in all the storefronts. Some say “shop local, live local, buy local, enjoy local.” Others are just cut-out hearts. Some even say “we miss you.”

“Practically every day when I come to town there’s another thing on my window. Another heart, another message,” said Hill.

She’s been listening to local gossip, and she still has no idea who did it. “Because I’m at the community center, I talk to so many people all the time, I would know if the person was fessing up at all,” Hill said.

“But that’s really kind of the beauty of it, just a person who wanted to do something good.”