Almost everyone can remember trading valentine’s notes and candy as lower schoolers, but what traditions will upper-school students celebrate this year, and how does the GA community celebrate Valentine’s Day as a whole?
There are plenty of people who feel that Valentine’s Day is over-advertised and puts unnecessary pressure on people who aren’t in a relationship. Others also feel that Valentine’s Day promotes a stereotypical image of love, which can cause them to feel like their relationships are invalid.
While these are some of the negative factors of Valentine’s Day, that does not mean that people cannot find a way to enjoy the holiday. Valentine’s Day doesn’t need to be about Cupid or over-advertised traditions, rather it can be a time of service and an important break in the middle of the long, cold months. It is also an opportunity to show friends that you care, and a time to get creative with all sorts of crafts.
For the second year in a row, Germantown Academy’s Community Service Organization held their Valentine’s Day Hershey Kiss Drive. This year the fundraiser was in honor of Mr. Peter McVeigh, who started the CSO program at GA. Last school year, the Upper School CSO was unable to hold the usual December candy cane drive because of the pandemic. Instead they decided to implement the Hershey Kiss Drive, and continue to donate all proceeds toward the Breathing Room, an organization that benefits families dealing with cancer. Sra. Yvette Marquéz, head of upper-school’s CSO, commented on the change saying, “It was a total success and people actually liked it better than candy canes.” She said that CSO plans to “keep it” with hopes that the Hershey Kiss Drive will continue to be a success.
When asking freshman Taryn DiFranco what she thinks of Valentine’s Day, she said, “I think it’s just a fun day that doesn’t even have to be for love, it can be for friends. It’s a day where people can just get together and give each other candy.” She also goes on to say that “it’s also a good break in the long and often hard months of January and February.”
The timing of Valentine’s Day is near perfect, providing people with an exciting day in the middle of a time where people are working very hard in school to get through the winter. A fun tradition that Taryn remembers from lower school was decorating paper bags and giving each other candy. This year, she thinks that the Hershey Kiss Drive is “a really fun way for friends to connect while it’s also benefiting the Breathing Room.”
There are many fun crafts and activities that can be done during this holiday. Popular ones include making candy-filled paper heart boxes, watching romantic movies, giving loved ones chocolate boxes, writing sweet notes and so much more! Valentine’s day is the perfect day to show appreciation to those you love the most.
Although Valentine’s Day can bring an influx of negative emotions, it still is a fun time for traditions of service, candy and crafts in the middle of the cold winter season.