Invitation 2024 - Please send MoneY by January 20
January 2024
Happy New Year Dear Ones!
I hope this finds you strong in spirit!
Since last Valentine’s day I moved from Brooklyn to Marblehead MA, and gave birth to a baby boy named August Valentine. I am learning all about the wonders of how much love a heart can hold. In the midst of all of this change organizing the Valentines seemed impossible, but happily love finds a way!
An amazing woman donated over 500 new pocketbooks, a longtime friend of the project donated hundreds of scarves, and the extraordinary cupids who pull it all together each year sprung into action. Suddenly giving Valentine’s day gifts to several hundred survivors of domestic abuse at shelters across New York from a distance could be done! What a testament to the power of community!
Among the many things I am thankful for daily is a safe & loving environment. This blessing is the fruit of a confluence of factors including luck, choices & the active involvement of communities who have loved, rooted for & protected me. It is hard to overstate the impact of the last factors on the first two. Lots of people don't like Valentine's day. I imagine being in a shelter would make this day particularly rough. Our goal is to let our Valentines at the shelters know there are people rooting for them & believing they are deserving of love. We do this by assembling little bags of necessities & small luxuries for Valentine's Day. The valentine Community Project will happen in 2024, but in a different way.
PLEASE DON’T SEND STUFF THIS YEAR - I’m not on the ground to sort it. (If you have 535 of the same thing to go in all of the bags or want to pay for one of the elements we are buying please reach out to me directly and we can figure out a plan). There are a few ways to participate this year:
SEND MONEY We still have to buy the bags the gifts will go in, supplies and other materials needed to make it all work. PLEASE SEND MONEY BY JANUARY 20th
START A LOCAL VALENTINE’S DAY PROJECT (Step by step guide here)
PRAY for the valentines receiving our gifts & the many people who need love at this time
No worries AT ALL if this project isn't for you, but if it resonates click PARTICIPATE to get involved including: Sending Money, Praying, & Starting a local Valentine Community Project.
I can’t begin to tell you how touched I am by what you made happen over the past 11 years (check out the 2023 bags here ). Thank you most sincerely.
Peace,
Emily Valentine Sottile
emilysottile@gmail.com
954-604-1880