North Kingstown veteran collects Valentine's cards to show love to those who served

(WJAR) — A North Kingstown veteran is asking the public to show a little love to those who served this Valentine's Day.

Matthew McCoy, a North Kingstown Town Councilor and 23-year Navy veteran, has started 'Valentine's For Veterans.'

“We’re collecting Valentines, any Valentines-related gifts, or cards, or pictures from kids to distribute to the Bristol Veterans Home, the Providence VA Medical Center, and any nursing homes that may be looking for them to cheer residents up," said McCoy. “Sometimes the folks in the veteran's home or hospital or in nursing homes can be overlooked and forgotten about."

During Christmas, McCoy takes on a similar project.

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Last year, at this time, he said the effort was successful too,

“We did it last year and we had about 1000 cards," he said. "A school that had their kids paint little pebbles and rocks with their names and things like that, it brought a lot of cheer to the people who got them."

McCoy said unfortunately, a lot of the veterans that live in the places they'll be given to, don't get a lot of mail.

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“The whole point of this effort is to show them a little bit of love on this Valentine’s Day," said McCoy. “This is a way to let them know that the veteran community, and the community throughout Rhode Island cares about them."

McCoy has set up a drop box inside the entrance to the North Kingstown Free Library.

He's also willing to pick up the cards if they can't be dropped off.

Ideally, he would like to have them in hand by Feb. 10 so he can distribute them to veterans for the Hallmark holiday.

“If I were in the hospital or I was in the nursing home and I received one of these it would make me feel really good," he said. “There’s a lot of negativity out there and this is just one small thing that we can do as a community, as a state, to show some people we care about them and we love them."