Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello 5th graders of CT! Happy Valentine's Day! A lot has happened in the last week and I can't wait to tell you all about it! But first, I'm going to tell you about the history of Cupid and Valentine's Day. 

Do you know the story of Cupid? I recently learned it and I'm going to share it with you! Cupid is the son of the winged Messenger of the Gods, Mercury, and the Goddess of Love, Venus. He was born with wings and carries a bow and quiver of arrows that allows its target to fall in love with the first person they see. His mother, Venus, being the Goddess of Love, expected all of the people to love and worship her. Princess Psyche, a princess of outstanding beauty, joined the home of the Gods, Mount Olympus. Unfortunately, all of the people of Mount Olympus liked Psyche so much that they forgot to worship Venus. This made Venus so mad that she forced Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with the most terrible being on Earth. 

As Cupid snuck into Psyche's room at night, he scratched himself with one of his own arrows, causing him to fall in love with Psyche. Eventually, she found out what had happened and married Cupid under his condition that she could never see his face. When Psyche's curiosity got the best of her, she glanced at Cupid. Cupid was embarrassed and got so mad that he fled from his home and ran away to the world. Psyche  searched far and wide and eventually found Cupid. Finally, the God Jupiter granted Psyche the gift of immortality and she became the goddess of the soul with Cupid at her side. 

There is so much more to the story of Cupid but I needed to keep it short and sweet for blog purposes. Feel free to learn more about the story online!

Now, I'm going to tell you all of the amazing things that happened to me this week!

On Friday, my class and I made cards for my local nursing home, The Summit. I made three cards and my class made quite a few, too. We had all different colors of paper, hearts, glitter, and gems. We had so much fun making them and I encourage all of you to make one, too. Even a small positive guesture can make a person smile. A few of the cards I made were hearts with positive messages on them. I also made a paper heart with the word "love" written on it and, my favorite, a card that had glittery hearts on green pipe cleaners to look like a bouquet of roses! I couldn't wait to deliver them!

When I got out of school, WTNH New Channel 8 made a special request to speak with me about making cards for nursing homes in our state. I met with reporter Stephanie Simoni and she asked me all about making cards for local nursing homes. You can watch the interview HERE. I told her how my school made a whole basket full of cards and that there were more coming this week. There were about 100 cards in the basket and I'd say that there would be 250 cards in total. The best part about this part of my platform is that people have been participating from all over the state and country! Mrs. Long's class in Meriden, Mrs. Heaton's class in West Hartford, and Mr. Vincent's class in Cornwall even sent in photos of their cards! Family friends in Michigan are making cards for their local nursing homes. Oregon's Kid Governor Taneesh is participating in my campaign by delivering handmade cards to his local nursing home (Thank you, Taneesh!). I also really want to thank EVERYONE who is willing to participate in making a more positive community in Connecticut!

On Saturday, I delivered all of the cards my school made to my local nursing home, The Summit. I made a basket that I put all of the cards in. My favorite part about making the basket was adding positive messages on all four sides of the box. I also added braided rope handles because it was definitely HEAVY. I never knew positivity could weigh so much! The classes who didn't give their cards to my teacher left them at school and my teacher met us at The Summit with them. I worked with a representative from the nursing home, Barbara, who sent someone to meet us at the nursing home to take the cards. Later, Barbara let us know that over 1,000 cards from the entire town of Southington made it to The Summit for the elderly! How amazing is that? It makes me so happy to know that people just like my great grandma are feeling loved this Valentine's Day by a whole community! I couldn't be happier with the turn out. 

Later that afternoon, I took a ride down to Groton to visit my great grandma and spent the day with my great aunt. When we visited my great grandma, she was so happy to see us and it made my heart burst to see her again. We had a great conversation with her through the window (don't worry, the window was closed). She was talking about how she missed us all and that she couldn't wait until we could come inside again. I really want her to know that I am doing the best I can to spread positive messages and that, together, we can overcome this pandemic.It was so nice to see my great grandma. My family and I decided that we are going to build a bird feeder to keep outside her window. She is going to be so happy, I can't wait!

Thank you for reading this week's blog post! As I said, I will tell you fun fact about me in each blog post. Here's this week's fact: my favorite present that I ever received on Valentine's Day is a three foot tall stuffed gorilla that I love and still have. My dad gave me this gift and I love it so much!

Stay Positive! :)