COCHRAN, Ga. — Remember those days you'd get to share a valentine with everyone in your class, then everyone ended up being your Valentine?
One school decided they'd ask the whole country to be theirs.
Not only did the nation accept... people all around the world sent them love!
Less than a week away from Valentine's Day, love is bursting out of Bleckley County Elementary School.
Caroline, Jakari, Sofia and Ranger call themselves the "funk-tastic" four.
Riley Troili and Scarlett Moore are their special education teachers.
Since the beginning of the year, they had one goal: get a valentine from each of the 50 states.
Troili made a post on Facebook hoping people would spread the word about their project, which she said started off as "Hearts Across America."
"Sometimes we'll get big boxes, or little boxes, or just the cards," Moore said. "They love to see what's in there, and of course, they get excited, and we get excited too!"
That post blew up, Troili said; people from Washington D.C., Hawaii, Alaska, New Mexico - every single state sent the class a letter!
"Now we have all 50, so we're working on other countries!" she said.
They're getting love letters and gifts from all around the world, so the project evolved to "Hearts Across the World."
Germany, England, Poland, Guam, Japan, Iceland, and New Zealand are just a few of the countries they were able to mark off too.
The teachers show the students where their mail comes from on a map in the hallway.
Surrounding the map, the hallway's decorated with all the cards, adorned with hearts and tinsel lights hanging from the ceiling.
"We'll look at the names and the city, the state, and what country it's from," Moore said. "We'll show where it's located in the world, or America, so they know where it came from. Then, we'll show them pictures of what the city looks like, so they get to see the map and they learn geography skills."
The funk-tastic four are exceptionally gifted and get to learn real life skills, along with the usual school subjects, in their SPED classroom.
Troili and Moore have a grocery store set up in their classroom they practice selling and buying goods.
Recently, they took the kids to Walmart to practice grocery shopping with real money.
The kids said it was a blast!
Their hearts are so big, they also share their kindness with their whole school on a weekly basis with a mobile coffee cart, Jitterbug Joe, with treats, snacks, baked goods, and, of course, assorted coffee drinks with creamers, sweeteners-- it's the whole shebang!
The geography project they got to participate in has been special to them, the kids said.
Folks sent in lots of love, including candies, stickers, pencils, funky cards with music the kids dance to, and someone even sent in crocheted turtles for each kid!
Caroline said her favorite card was one with a dog on the front because she has two dogs at home.
Jakari said his favorites were a robot card and the Spiderman toy he got from Ms. Moore.
Ranger couldn't wipe the smile off his face as we admired the hallway decorations.
The class is returning the favor, straight from the heart, because they have so much love to share with others.
Sofia said, "We're making these cards because the people sent us the cards that we loved."
"These kids are amazing," Moore said. "They can do so much more than meets the eye."
If you want to mail a Valentine to the funk-tastic four, you can send your love letters and gifts to:
Bleckley County Elementary School
470 Georgia Hwy 26 E
Cochran, GA 31014
Congratulations, Bleckley Elementary on being our School of the Week!