'You are loved:' Florida student makes Valentine's Day cards for entire school

Handmade cards posted on every locker at Spruce Creek High School

PORT ORANGE, Fla. – While many people are thinking about the devastation that happened at one Florida school during Valentine's Day, another student is being recognized for her act of kindness.

"I was just shocked, I just started crying," said Melanie Turngren, who works in the guidance department at Spruce Creek High School in Volusia County. "The sentiments on these hearts were just amazing." 

Each and every locker at Spruce Creek High School had a Valentine's Day card posted on the outside. There was a total of 3,250 cards, each with a saying such as "you are loved."  

"At the core, that's the most important thing we can do for our kids, is for them to feel loved, and supported and that they matter," Turngren said. "These hearts did a lot for these kids."

I just want to say, what a great day to be alive! My eyes cried real tears at this sight and to find out one of our...

Posted by Melanie Porreco Turngren on Wednesday, February 14, 2018

All this love was expressed by one big heart. 

"Can't leave anyone out," senior Hannah Harrison said. "If I didn't do a hundred a night, I would double up on the weekends." 

It took Harrison nearly two months to make all the cards as a way to give back to her school and make Valentine's Day a day everyone could enjoy.  

"What a perfect way to twist that and make it positive and have everyone know they're loved, which is true," she said. "I just felt whatever I wrote on each heart is what that person needed that day. People need to know they're loved and to believe in themselves."

When Harrison planned her kind deed, she didn't know a school shooting would happen in South Florida that same day.

"I cried when I saw the hearts, and I cried even more when I heard (about the mass shooting)," Turngren said. "It's sad, it's heartbreaking, it's something that students this age shouldn't have to be dealing with. The things on these lockers are the things students should be feeling and dealing with."

The messages brought some light and love to what ended up being a dark Valentine's Day for many. 

"We can all bring light into the world and we need to all know that you're loved," Harrison said.  


About the Author:

It has been an absolute pleasure for Clay LePard living and working in Orlando since he joined News 6 in July 2017. Previously, Clay worked at WNEP TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he brought viewers along to witness everything from unprecedented access to the Tobyhanna Army Depot to an interview with convicted double-murderer Hugo Selenski.

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