On Friday, February 14, 2020, Beaver’s Digest hosted an event at Oregon State University’s Student Experience Center to celebrate Valentine’s day with a chocolate fountain and strawberries, photo booth pictures, a Valentine’s Day card making station, some DJ’d music by KBVR-FM’s DJ Madilyn Sturges, and awaited the announcement of giveaway prizes, provided by The Domain student housing! 

We called our giveaway the “Random Acts of Kindness” social media contest, challenging contestants to complete a random act of kindness throughout the week, to be entered to win one of three self-care inspired prizes. The prizes consisted of a weighted blanket, a Shiatsu neck and back massager, and a goodie basket of Domain gear with gloves, a shirt, hat, and a few more practical items. 

The idea behind the week-long social media contest, and the event itself, was to to share love and kindness between everyone throughout the week rather than only celebrating those in romantic relationships, something V-Day is traditionally known for. We wanted to spread the idea that Valentine’s Day is about celebrating all kinds of love; whether that be between friends, coworkers, peers, community members, significant others, or even strangers… hence the name, Spread The Love. 

Another major factor that played into this idea was that celebrating love can also entail celebrating your love for yourself, something we value at Beaver’s Digest, and share tips and information about through our weekly Self-Care Sunday articles. 

The event was highly successful in the sense that we were able to engage a large number of students in being kind to one-another throughout the week and we were able to provide an open invitation to celebrate Valentine’s Day with anyone at Oregon State University that desired to. 

Thank you to those who partnered with us for this event, including Orange Media Network staff and marketing team, OSU’s Global Community Kitchen, The Domain Student Housing, University Catering, KBVR-FM, and the Memorial Union.