Handmade valentines spread love to seniors in care

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Boy Scout Jerry Ho, 13, creates a Valentine’s Day card as part of the “Warm Hearts: Valentine’s for Seniors” project on Sunday, January 28, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Meldie Moore is hoping cupid’s arrow reaches 4,000 seniors in long-term care facilities in Orange and Riverside counties this Valentine’s Day.

She started the “Warm Hearts: Valentines for Seniors” card-making campaign when the coronavirus pandemic took an emotional toll on nursing home residents who felt isolated and depressed. She has continued the program in the years since, and on Sunday a team of Scouts were busy at Laguna Presbyterian Church helping chip away at Moore’s goal.

  • Hanli Li helps her daughter, Bella Huang, 8, with cub scout pack 25 in Laguna Beach, create a Valentine’s Day card on Sunday, January 28, 2024. The cards will be delivered to seniors in Orange and Riverside county nursing facilities. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Marius Eigenmann, 8, shows off one of the cards he made in Laguna Beach on Sunday, January 28, 2024 during the “Warm Hearts: Valentine’s for Seniors” project. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Allison Eggers puts some of the dozens of Warm Hearts Valentine’s Day cards, made by scouts, into a box on Sunday, January 28, 2024. The valentines will be delivered to seniors in nursing facilities. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Scout and Cub Master Michael Lindsey helps create Valentin’s Day cards for seniors on Sunday, January 28, 2024 in Laguna Beach. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Boy Scout Jerry Ho, 13, creates a Valentine’s Day card as part of the “Warm Hearts: Valentine’s for Seniors” project on Sunday, January 28, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A hodgepodge of supplies are used during the “Warm Hearts: Valentine’s for Seniors” project in Laguna Beach on Sunday, January 28, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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She partners with the Council on Aging Southern California to get the cards distributed.

Cub Scout Lucien Eigenmann, 10, reflected while assembling a card from a hodgepodge of supplies: white and pink foam hearts, colored markers, soft pompoms and bright stickers with bling.

“This is very nice,” he said of Moore’s effort to reach some of the 28,000 elderly and disabled adults living in Orange County long-term care facilities, half of whom don’t have a friend or family member actively involved in their care, according to Council on Aging statistics. “They deserve to be loved. Doesn’t everybody?”

Scout Aaron Moy, 16, drew a heart inside his card with the message: “Wishing you everything that makes you happiest, today and always.”

“Older people don’t always have a connection to youth,” Moy said. “Maybe this will connect us more.”

Moore, founder and owner of Moore Law for Children in Laguna Beach, said helping people “gives me worth, happiness and lightness.”

And, she said, “In a world where there’s so little I can control, it gives me a sense of control.”

She fondly recalls seniors receiving their valentines last year, showing their cards to others and smiling as they read the messages and ran their fingers over the texture.

Moore said people feel joy in volunteering. When she publicized one of her community service projects, “it started a wave” of people also wanting to help, and “a bunch of ripples of change,” she said.

Inspired by a Mother Theresa quote, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.” she said she created a Wave of Change campaign through her law office, planning monthly community projects like making valentines to spread positive energy in her community.

“We are all in this together,” she added.

People still have time to create cards. For details go to: moorelawoc.com/category/wave-of-change or coasc.org/valentines.

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