MADISON – Local Girl Scouts showed their compassion for elderly citizens by relaying happy greetings on Valentine’s Day.

The Girl Scouts of Service Unit 212 in Madison made and distributed more than 300 Valentine’s Day cards for senior citizens in the Tennessee Valley. Girls from five to 18 years old designed handmade cards to bring love and joy to the residents, according to Brandan Newman, Troop Leader for Troop 21216 in Madison.

The outreach for well-wishing for the Valentine’s holiday led Girl Scouts USA to create a national service project called “Cupid Crew.” National officials challenged Girl Scouts across the country to create Valentine cards for senior citizens in their communities.

Scouts gave their cards to six retirement homes in Madison, Athens and Huntsville. These facilities included Traditions of Athens, Merrill Gardens, The Range, Heritage Assisted Living and Morningside of Madison.

About 50 girls in Service Unit 212 of Girl Scouts participated from six troops in Madison. To craft their project items, the girls used various colors and textures of construction paper, scrapbook pages, stickers, decorative paper ornaments, crayons, pens, colored pencils and ink markers.

Saoirse Newman, a Daisy Girl Scout in Troop 21216, designed one traditional greeting card of red construction paper, decorated with a heart-shaped cutout of a bouquet of pink rosebuds. For another design, Saoirse used lavender paper cut into a heart design with bright, rainbow stripes along the edges.

By joining in this outreach effort, “The girls learned how to bring joy to those who have been isolated during the pandemic,” Newman said.

Saoirse summed up the feelings for herself and fellow Scouts by saying, “Giving is nice.”

On the cards, the girls wrote thoughts, such as “Happy Valentine’s Day, Dear Friend” and “I hope you have a great day.” Along with other phrases of love and encouragement, a few girls wrote their own poems.

Because of social distancing constraints, the Scouts had to leave their cards at the facilities’ front doors with an administrator. “None of the homes were allowing any visitors at all,” Newman said.

For more information about Girl Scouting in Madison County, visit girlscoutsnca.org.