On Friday, Feb. 9, McConn’s Valentine’s Day-themed Public House event took place, where students could claim any anonymous valentines they had received earlier in the week.
During the week leading up to Public House, students could scan the QR code at McConn to either send another student a valentine or use points to get them a free drink of their choice to be claimed at Public House.
Bayley Grieve, a shift manager at McConn, explained how they came up with the idea for the anonymous valentines.
“We were wanting to do a Valentine’s themed Public House. And then we found out that when you bought a gift card if you didn’t put your name on it, it could be anonymous, so that’s how the anonymous Valentines started,” Grieve said.
When asked how many students participated, Grieve said, “I think we had at least like 30 people. And we had at least 162 people scan the QR code we got.”
A group of three students scanned the QR code to give valentines to one another. One of these students was Amber McClain.
“We all sent each other two. I think it was pretty cool to get the chance… you kinda want to do something kind for somebody,” McClain said.
McClain said she liked how the valentines could be used not only as a romantic gesture but as a way of showing love in general.
“You can leave messages and whatever, so it’s kind of just been like paying kindness to another person,” McClain said.
Destiny Bess and Katie Johnson were also a part of this trio. Despite their own valentines to each other not being anonymous, they said they still took the chance to show love to one another and have fun.
“I think it was really cool. You can really make someone’s day,” Bess said.
Johnson made a suggestion that this sort of activity should happen more frequently.
“Even if they did something like that all year round… that might be an idea. Just to bless someone else with a free drink,” Johnson said.
Grieve was asked about the possibility of doing something similar to the anonymous valentines again.
“It was mostly for the Valentine’s theme. We’ll see what happens. We’ve had Public House a couple of times, so this is the first Valentine’s Day thing but maybe we’ll see,” Grieve said.
Time will tell if the anonymous valentines will become a tradition, but for now, students can enjoy McConn’s Valentine’s drink menu while it is still available.
