This Valentine’s Day, Solon High School’s (SHS) Key Club continued their long-standing tradition of selling carnations during SHS lunch periods. These carnations will be delivered to hundreds of students during their first-period classes tomorrow.

Each year, Key Club profits from this fundraiser selling around 1,300 carnations for $1, annually.

“The profit from these carnations totals up to be around $300 [to] $500 each year,” said Margaret Locke, current SHS English teacher and Key Club Advisor.

Instead of simply selling candy or snacks for this holiday, flowers seem to be more in style when it comes to Valentine’s Day.

“The reason we chose to use flowers is because there’s a novelty to the Carnations that candy doesn’t have that makes it a little bit more appealing.” said Locke. “[plus Key Club doesn’t] make nearly as much money on candy because it is more expensive to buy, it’s just not a big money maker.”

Key Club is an SHS organization that dedicates their time to collecting money for charity and having fundraisers such as the Carnation Drive and Canned Food Drive to better help the community. There are currently six Key Club officers in charge of the organization and delivery of carnations.

“We have to sort hundreds of files of information, count thousands of cards to see how many carnations need to go to every single teacher and then, once that’s done, which is not a small task, we have to figure out where each teacher’s classroom is and how to best sort the carnations, so, that logistically, we can deliver them to each classroom,” said Locke. “All in a 15 minute timeframe because teachers open their doors around 7:30 and class starts by 7:45.”

“It is a pretty cute idea,” said Senior Vanity Petgrave.“I really think the price is pretty good and students have a lot of fun with it. I also like the posters around the halls.”

It has been over ten years since SHS started this tradition.

The Carnation drive sold flowers from Jan. 31 up until Feb. 13 during SHS lunch periods. Students have the ability to leave a note to the person or persons they are giving the carnation to. On Valentine’s Day, students will receive these notes and the carnation during their first period class.

As Valentine’s day approaches students and teachers seem to enjoy the heightened Valentine spirit that the carnation drive seems to spread.

“I realized that it really brightens people’s day and makes everyone a little happier despite the fact that they’re at school,” Petgrave said.