Key Club will host their annual carnation drive to raise money for Key Club and spread Valentine’s Day cheer around the school. The last day to purchase carnations is tomorrow. One carnation is $2 and two is $3. Flowers can be purchased outside of the bookstore during all lunch periods and will be delivered during first period on Valentine’s Day.

Senior Key Club officer Nalin Gupta has been a member of Key Club for four years and has been selling the flowers during lunch.

“[The carnations sales] allow students to send flowers and fun messages to their friends,” Gupta said.

Key Club co-advisor Margaret Locke, who teaches English and Media Communications, has many memories of the carnation drive from when she was a student at Solon.

“I think that it is really a great tradition that the high school has that we have done it every year,” Locke said “Freshman, it’s new to them, but I think the other grade levels know to expect it.

“It’s always a really fun thing every morning to see who sent you flowers,” Locke said. “To be able to send flowers to other people to celebrate Valentine’s Day, and it’s great because it isn’t just a romantic thing. A lot of people send it to their friends to show them that they care.”

Key Club is an international organization and a household name in many schools because of everything they do for communities, but they also bring the school together with fundraisers and drives happening throughout the whole year. Key Club Co-advisor and anatomy teacher Kristen Ahrens is also a Solon alumnus. She says the club is anticipating holding more fundraisers this year.

“We [will be] collecting pop tags for the Ronald McDonald house…” Ahrens said. “You will start to see containers [in the next few weeks] around the school. [We will also volunteer at Kiwanis] Pancake Breakfast, [and] we are doing work with the elementary schools and other partner networks in Solon.”