Valentine’s Day isn’t all superficial.
This Valentine’s Day, people can spread the love and support to charities by making cards, donating money or requesting a serenade.
Cody Anderson is not a veteran himself, but he will be walking for 30 straight hours to raise awareness for Valentines for Veterans, a program that gives valentine cards to U.S. veterans in the area.
He is requesting people submit cards for him to deliver around the city. They can be dropped off at Van Fleet Hall, the ROTC building on UF’s campus.
“We owe everything to a soldier,” Anderson, 59, said. “All my life I’ve tried to repay a debt of gratitude.”
He has volunteered his time and energy for the past 39 years to help those in need. Since then, he said he has raised more than $200 million for various charities.
This Valentine’s Day, he wants to show that respect and love for the veterans by ensuring that each veteran in the area gets a Valentine’s Day card.
“I have the utmost respect and appreciation for everyone who served,” Anderson said.
Other organizations are using the holiday to fight for cures.
Suzanne Smith, Epsilon Sigma Alpha president of the Delta Chi chapter, said the co-ed fraternity raises funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to help children in the hospital, as inspired by fellow member Lindsey Tercilla. A former St. Jude’s patient, Tercilla was 2 years old when she spent several months in the hospital for a tumor on her small intestine, said Smith, a 21-year-old UF biology senior.
All ESA fraternities in the U.S. raise money for St. Jude to help children like Tercilla. One of their fundraisers, ESA Hearts St. Jude, is held each February for Valentine’s Day.
Phi Mu Alpha has already been serenading for a cause for two weeks. The music fraternity is supporting Relay for Life by helping others show their love, singing two songs for $25.
At about 3:15 p.m. on the Plaza of the Americas on Thursday, a group of five suited up and serenaded an unsuspecting woman with, “I Just Called To Say I Love You.”
Howard Lin, member and UF advertising sophomore, said they will serenade friends and significant others all to help cancer patients. There is even a plan to assist a proposal.
“I think (my favorite) would have to be ‘My Girl,’ just because it’s a classic song,” Lin, 19, said. “It perfectly sums up serenade and is directed at one girl.”
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 2/13/2015 under the headline “UF valentines for charity"]
Leah Warwick, a 21-year-old UF sociology senior, laughs while she watches members of Phi Mu Alpha, a music fraternity, perform a song for her. “I wasn’t expecting it,” Warwick said. “It’s cheesy in a good way.”
