EVANSVILLE – A very young member of the Burpee and Mills community has, along with his mother, been making beautiful paper hearts and putting them in local residents’ mailboxes to post on their windows, a move that shows solidarity and is brightening the spirits of everyone who has received a heart during this very difficult time.
“It’s awesome,” stated Janis Hutchinson, a resident of Evansville and the owner of The Flower Hutch store in Gore Bay. “Six-year-old EJ Bailey has been making these paper hearts and has been going around Evansville putting hearts in mail boxes for people to put in their window.”
“It is very, very thoughtful,” said Ms. Hutchinson who has one of the hearts that EJ made on the home that she and Ken Noland live in Evansville and at her store in Gore Bay.
Leeanne Bailey told the Recorder on Sunday “we weren’t the first ones with the idea of the hearts, I had seen someone post them on Facebook of someone who was doing the same thing in Little Current (and Gore Bay as well).”
“EJ and I made a heart for our window at home, but very few people walk by our place, we are in such a rural area,” said Ms. Bailey. “So then EJ and I made some more, and since I’ve still been going to work and my mom had him during the day it gave him something to do.”
“We took one of the hearts EJ made to Murray and Ann Hammond’s house and then we put them in more local residents’ mail boxes on the strip here (Evansville) and then at Janis and Ken’s. Erwin Thompson received one of (EJ’s) hearts and put it up in the window and then he made a larger one himself and put that on this window as well. Nicky Middleton has about 20-23 hearts on her window—she took a picture of her window and posted it on her Facebook page.”
“It has been really nice to see how people have reacted to getting the hearts,” stated Ms. Bailey, who said some of EJ’s hearts have been mailed to friends in Mississauga. “It is great to see something so simple warm people’s hearts and bring them together. And it provides a distraction during this difficult time for everyone.”
“We have even had several people ask for EJ to make hearts for them,” said Ms. Bailey.
Asked why he wanted to make the hearts, EJ told the Recorder, “because I thought it would be a good idea if more people had these hearts, and if more people in Evansville had more hearts than Gore Bay does.”
“In Gore Bay you also see a lot of hearts in people’s windows,” said Ms. Bailey. “People need some kind of good news right now.”
