One student's kind act sparked annual Valentine's Day event for Spanish Fork

SPANISH FORK — The city of Spanish Fork on Friday delivered 4,000 valentines to students at local high schools as part of an annual event that started eight years ago, when one student wanted to make others feel loved.

In 2018, Sterling Brinkerhoff, who was a junior at Spanish Fork High School at the time, learned that a fellow student had died by suicide. Hearing this news made him want to take action to make sure all the female students at his school felt loved on Valentine's Day. He decided to make origami hearts, and together, with many volunteers, each girl at his school received a special valentine.

"I only had a single class with them, but I could see that their loss left an impact on the school," Brinkerhoff told KSL. "I wanted to do this project to make sure that nobody else felt the same way that they felt — that they needed to take their own life. I just wanted to do this as a preventive measure to keep the student body safe."

Brinkerhoff's thoughtfulness had a large impact not only on the students in his school but the entire Spanish Fork community — so much so, that the city decided to continue doing it.

"The city has been handing out valentines to high school students for the past six years," said Spanish Fork city spokesman Jack Urquhar. "We hand them out to all students, and each year there's a different theme. This year's theme is about smiling. We thought it was a good and light theme. It's not really about romantic love but about how we can show love to other people. We wanted to share a smile and have students do the same."

The Spanish Fork City Council, including the Youth City Council, worked together to design, make and distribute 4,000 cards to American Leadership Academy, Maple Mountain, Spanish Fork, and Landmark high schools. The cards are bingo cards with different ways to encourage others to smile, including:

• "Smile in a mirror for 30 seconds."
• "Write a note to someone signed with a :)"
• "Ask someone what makes them smile."
• "Smile at one of your parents until they ask why."
• "Have a smile staring contest with a friend."
• "Smile at a senior citizen."
• "Post your best smile in IG with #Spanishforksmiles."

There is also a QR code on the valentine that students can scan to watch a special message from the City Council.

"If you talk to Mayor (Mike) Mendenhall, this is a really big deal to him, and it's a really big deal to the whole council," Urquhar said. "They talk about it emotionally. They prepare for it, prioritize it and look forward to it. On our City Council, we have a lot of members that have children who are teenagers, and they really feel like Valentine's Day is one of those days that can be sad for kids in high school. The youth in our community are an asset to this community, and we in the City Council care about them."

Taylor Tooke is a sophomore at Maple Mountain High School and member of the Spanish Fork Youth City Council. She said putting the cards together the past couple of years has been good for her to show fellow students she cares. She also said that it's been good to learn firsthand of the support she and other teens have from the community.

"It's so much fun for everybody," Taylor said. "Just putting them together was really special knowing that they were going to go to a bunch of students and hopefully make their day. I've had friends come up to me and say, 'How cool is this?' 'It is such a sweet gesture,' and 'It made my day.'"

Brinkerhoff, who is now a master's student at Utah State University studying plant science, said that it's been inspiring to see the program grow over the years.

"It's hard to put it into words," Brinkerhoff said. "I started this during my junior year of high school, and to see it grow and develop and become what it has has been really inspiring to see. The fact that it's touched the lives of so many people. It's just incredible to see it happen."

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