Every year, Heritage puts hearts with every student’s name on the walls throughout the whole school. This tradition is a good way for all students to know they are seen and cared about. LINK is the reason all of this happens. A few periods before the date closest to Valentine’s Day (or on Valentine’s Day if it lands on a weekday), LINK starts a process of cutting out paper hearts and writing everyone’s name on one. According to Audrey N ’26, it took about two advisory periods to prepare them all to be hung up.
Evelyn W. ’27 shares, “I like the tradition because it’s fun to go looking for the hearts around the school with your friends before school starts it’s nice to see everybody’s names on the walls.” She would also like to be a part of LINK to play a role in setting all of them up and thinks it would be a good bonding experience with the other students in LINK.
Around Heritage, seeing your name on the wall in a pink, red, or purple heart brightens your day. Students think it’s nice for those who don’t have dates on this special day, giving those the feeling of being noticed. Both Evelyn W. and Audrey N. think it’s really important to keep this tradition alive! Audrey N. says, “I think Heritage mainly started this tradition because it made students here feel like they matter, that they belong, and that they are seen/recognized just as many of their peers are. It reminds others that Valentine’s doesn’t have to mean you need a date to celebrate. It’s about recognizing and appreciating the people in your life that you love, like parents and friends. Recently more people have been celebrating Galentines.”
Both students agree that it would be cool to start another tradition: Candy Grahams! Evelyn W. thinks, “I think it would be cool to do Candy Grahams because you have something special for your friends that isn’t a lot of money, and it’s also a donation for the school which would be nice to see where that could go for us.”
Overall, Valentine’s Day is a special day for every student at Heritage! Everyone can celebrate, and over the 4 years, collect every one of their hearts as a good memory from high school.