‘Seen, valued, and not alone’: Shelters ask to see the love during February

The Alberta Council of Women's Shelters says it is collecting Valentines cards and messages of gratitude throughout February.

Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters (ACWS) is encouraging Albertans to show love to shelter workers in February.

Throughout the month, the association will collect messages of gratitude which it will distribute at the beginning of March.

The purpose of the provincewide campaign, called Love a Shelter, is to drum up support from the community.

“Frontline shelter work can be really exhausting, can be really daunting. You’re supporting people at the worst times of their lives,” said ACWS executive director Cat Champagne on Thursday.

“There’s so many people that are in the social services sector that join … because they care and they have big hearts. It’s really important to us that we flip that switch and show them how much we care about them and that they are appreciated.”

There are more than 60 shelters across the province, including six in the Edmonton area.

Valentine cards, whether they are homemade or downloaded from the ACWS website, can be mailed to the organization’s head office.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Dave Mitchell