PORT ANGELES — Neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of overcast skies will keep organizers of a local love-letter project from spreading their message of hope and encouragement this Saturday.
An effort to distribute as many anonymously written love letters as possible throughout downtown Port Angeles slated to start at 3 p.m. will go on rain or shine, said Kristin Halberg, a Port-Angeles-based life coach and one of the three organizers of the event.
“Bring appropriate clothing for whatever weather,” Halberg said in a Thursday interview.
“Joy is not bound by weather conditions.”
Halberg and her two co-organizers, local life coaches Mindy Aisling and Marie McCartney, are inviting anyone interested in passing out love letters to meet at the Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St.
From there, they will be loosed upon downtown and encouraged to hide or hand-deliver love letters in businesses and along the streets — “wherever people feel inspired to leave them,” Halberg said — as part of the Port Angeles Love Letter Project.
Attendees will walk around downtown until about 5 p.m. and finally meet at Country Aire Natural Foods at 200 W. First St., Halberg added.
200-250 letters
Halberg has not counted the pre-written love letters available for handout but estimated there are between 200 and 250.
“But that’s a wild guess,” she added.
Organizers hope people will bring pre-written love letters for distribution, Halberg said, though materials to write more will be provided at the Red Lion Hotel “in case we have a whole bunch of people who show up and not enough [letters] for people to participate.”
Halberg said she could not estimate how many people might show up at the Saturday event but said organizers have promoted the gathering to a similar level as the most recent love-letter event in Port Angeles, which about 60 people attended.
The last Love Letter Project event was held Feb. 6, when volunteers of varying ages showed up to the Port Angeles Library to create enough love letters to fill a 2-cubic-foot storage bin.
Letters written at the Feb. 6 event will be distributed this Saturday, Halberg said.
The Port Angeles effort is based on “The World Need More Love Letters” program, founded in New York City by a woman suffering from depression.
The love-letter-writing campaign has become a nationwide effort, based in part around www.MoreLoveLetters.com.
More information on the Saturday event can be found at http://tinyurl.com/aghvzt2.
________
Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
