Dave Kasprick has made 400 steel hearts to give away, and he has plans to create hundreds more.
Kasprick, who owns Red Cod Forge in Nanoose Bay, has been hanging hearts at the end of his long driveway for people to pick up and take home for the past 10 days, and plans to do so for the next four. He figured he’ll have created some 600 steel hearts when he’s finished.
“I do it a couple times a day, I hang 20 or so hearts out and people come and they just pick one,” he said. “They go fast, it’s amazing how quickly they go.”
It’s part of a global movement of people placing hearts in their windows or outside their houses — an act to show support and unity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the social isolation that comes along with it.
“There was a lady at the end of our road who said, ‘wouldnt it be fun to put some hearts around our little neighbourhood for the kids to come and try and find?’ And I had a couple hearts that I’d made,” he said. “Then I thought I’d go from there and keep doing it.”
The original plan was to make 40 or so hearts that the people in his neighbourhood could pick them up and have to hang in or outside their homes. But, the job grew quickly and soon people were coming from farther away to grab a heart.
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“Now they’ve travelled from as far as Victoria, Ladysmith, Comox,” he said. “Now people are taking some hearts and sending them to their parents on the mainland.”
Kasprick said it’s been great to see the community be excited about the hearts while remaining respectful.
“It’s been really cool… our house is 600 feet from the road,” he said. “It’s been really interesting to see cars pull up and sometimes two or three will pull up and they all wait for the folks to get their heart, and then they get out, so everyone is really practising the social distancing.”