An anonymous student at Troy High School in Troy, Ohio has surprised hundreds of their fellow students by leaving beautifully folded origami hearts on each school locker for Valentine’s Day.
The school posted a photo of the kind-hearted teenager’s work in a post on Facebook, preserving the do-gooder’s anonymity without even a gender pronoun to clue anyone in as to their identity.
Each locker got a folded heart with a message on it that said, simply, “you are loved.”
The scale is built from small repeated acts
One handmade card is a familiar gesture; preparing enough for a whole school turns it into a sustained project. The interesting detail is the effort to include people beyond a close circle of friends. CBS News put the total at about 1,300 valentines; notice how the choice of recipients changes the meaning of an otherwise ordinary Valentine's message.
The choice to include everyone changes the gesture
The Troy High School card story turns a familiar Valentine into a school-wide act of inclusion. Repeated folding and placement give the project its scale, while anonymity keeps attention on the recipients. The total of about 1,300 is striking, but the more immediate detail is that each locker received the same short message.
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How the hearts were made
The surprise came on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday 14 February 2017. The student had planned it in the autumn and began folding the hearts in September, making about 1,300 valentines in all for students, teachers and staff. Each origami heart had “You are loved.” written on the front in black permanent marker and was taped to a locker, and staff mailboxes received personal notes. The principal, Katherine Weaver, had seen the student and a handful of helpers putting up the hearts after school on the Monday, and the school kept the student’s name private.
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