There’s still time to put a stamp on a local Valentine’s Day message from the Sweetheart City.
Loveland’s Valentine Remailing Program is an 80-year-old collaboration between the city and the U-S Postal Service. Volunteers add a special postmark to love notes sent around the world.
Among all those Valentines, volunteers sometimes get notes addressed to celebrities. Teresa Bender mentioned Dolly Parton as a name she recently saw, and showed me an envelope destined for the White House.
“My husband has sent Valentines to the president, and he's gotten really fancy ‘thank you’ cards back,” Bender told KUNC.
The Valentine Remailing Program is massively popular among the volunteers stamping the stacks of love notes. Most become lifers once they’re in. Darline Rivas said she was on the volunteer stamper wait list for 10 years.
“The only way you can get in, practically, is if somebody dies,” Rivas said. “And that's what happened. My neighbor's mother died, and she said I could take her place.”
Rivas also has a personal connection to the holiday.
“I met my husband on the 14th of February. And we've been together ever since,” Rivas said. “It's just a fun thing, sharing love all over.”
Loveland’s Valentine Remailing Program is the largest one of its kind in the United States. You can drop off cards and letters for in-state recipients at the Chamber of Commerce through Monday.
