TOLEDO, Ohio — Getting a card on Valentine's Day is always special, but what about getting 100 cards? That's what happened to a teacher and her class at Most Blessed Sacrament School in west Toledo.
It's a unique approach to learning the 50 states for Ms. Kuhlman's second-grade class. Kuhlman made a post on Facebook, asking people from all 50 states if they would send Valentine's Day cards to her class.
"I just saw it and thought, why don't I give it a try? I didn't think it would take off like it has," she said.
The goal is to help her students learn about geography and directions.
"When we receive a card, the kids get to pin it on the map and find the state that it's from," Kuhlman said.
It's called 'spreading the love' and it spread like wildfire.
"The post office comes with buckets of mail almost daily and the kids are so excited to open them and see where they're from," School principal Melissa Empie said.
Some of their valentines have sent more than just a card.
"They got a big box of chocolate from California from a chocolate maker there and puzzles from Kentucky. So they're just getting all kinds of wonderful things," Empie said.
Many have come from Ohio and Michigan, even a few from Florida. Cards have even come from as far away as Abu Dhabi, Korea and the Netherlands.
"It's helped them identify where things are and that our world is much bigger than Toledo Ohio," Kuhlman said. "A lot of them have not had the opportunity to travel outside of the United States or even outside of Ohio."
Kuhlman said the activity has made the students excited to learn and is teaching other lessons at the same time.
"It's more than learning about the country. It's showing what a bit of kindness in our world today can do. That's really what's happening. They're seeing that people are loving and being kind to them," Empie said.
Kuhlman and her students hope to pay it forward and send cards to a different state later this year.
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