LOVELAND, Colo — Listening carefully during the month of February, a continual thumping sound in Loveland can be heard.
It’s the sound of volunteers postmarking thousands of valentines from all over the world, a project 90-year-old Joan Williams has been a part of for 28 years.
“I think is a very wonderful thing that we're doing,” Williams said.
Loveland has been the world’s valentine mailing capitol since 1946.
“We've covered 110 different countries and 50 different states every year through this program,” Loveland Chamber of Commerce President Mindy McCloughan said. “We say here that we are living the greatest love story of all time.”
Each valentine is carefully stamped with a special postmark and a short cache, and while there are always thousands of cards to stamp, joining the all-volunteer army of stampers isn’t easy.
“Probably some people have been on that waiting list for over 14 years,” McCloughlan said.
On the day we visited Williams, she was working on valentines lovingly called “chunkies.”
“They're really hard to stamp when they got all this candy and stuff in it,” Williams said.
Though it’s difficult, Williams said each envelope gets the same special attention and treatment.
"I'm trying to make the valentine look nice and everything because I want them to appreciate what's written in the Valentine's inside as well as outside,” she added.
Williams says work that makes so many people happy never gets tiring.
“That's what we're doing this for," Williams said. "It's called love. L-O-V-E.”
Denver7 features a different 7Everyday Hero each week. To nominate a hero in your life, click here.
