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I woke Wednesday morning — Valentine’s Day — to find a large red heart taped to our front door. Similar hearts decorated several other doors in our neighborhood. That simple gesture brought a huge smile to my face, and reaffirmed my faith in humanity.
Yes, I am sappy and, yes, a simple gesture can go a long way to making me happy.
For decades, a “bandit” had anonymously festooned Portland buildings and landmarks with hearts on Valentine’s Day.
Last year, a few weeks after the Feb. 14 holiday, we learned the identity of the Valentine’s Day bandit — Kevin Fahrman of Falmouth. He had been putting up the hearts since 1979. Fahrman died unexpectedly in April, and his family and lovers of the heart tradition wondered if his custom of spreading a bit of joy every February would continue.
It did, and it has, joyfully, spread beyond Portland.
In the early (and dark and cold) hours of Wednesday morning, intrepid BDN photographer and reporter Troy Bennett tracked down some of the bandits who were putting up hearts in Portland. Like Fahrman and his helpers in years past, many did not divulge their identities. Given the number of hearts put up each year — including a large banner on Fort Gorges in Casco Bay — the bandits’ work has long been a team tradition.
“It’s beautiful,” Sierra Fahrman, the Bandit’s daughter, said after sunrise on Wednesday. “It’s really special to see it continue.”
She told Bennett that her father’s tradition of hanging hearts around the city might seem silly at first, but it’s well worth continuing.
“It’s an act of community love, a Valentine to the whole city, where nobody is excluded,” Sierra Fahrman said.
Hanging the hearts — and being giddy about being the recipient of one — is not silly. Not to overplay it, but at a time of easy anonymous insults and a propensity among far too many to tear other people down rather than build them up, the simple Valentine’s Day tradition is a small visual reminder that we can be better.
We can spread love and happiness by simply posting a heart on a door or building. Likewise, we can expand that love and happiness by sharing a kind word with one another, or taking it a step further, doing a good deed for a friend or neighbor. On a larger scale, donating your time and/or money can also improve your community and help its residents.
After Fahrman’s death, his family created the Fahrman Foundation. The foundation “will support local organizations about which Kevin was passionate, and to which he gave ample time and assistance,” according to its website, where you can download one of the famous red hearts, perhaps to post next year. The Foundation held a fundraiser and party in Portland on Wednesday night.
The foundation and family also coined a simple phrase to encourage people to follow in Fahrman’s footsteps: Be a Kevin.
At a time when it is easy to be a nasty keyboard warrior or to hurl insults in person, it’s a simple reminder to be better. To treat other people with kindness and consideration. To know that they, and you, are loved.
Be a Kevin.
