[Image above] Julie Ludemann, recreation manager for the City of Tualatin, holds one of the many glass hearts hidden throughout the city’s parks and trails during the 2023 “Share the Love” event. Credit: KPTV FOX 12 Oregon, YouTube
Easter is typically when communities will organize city-wide treasure hunts for candy-filled plastic eggs. But for residents of Tualatin, Oregon, February is the time to search city parks and trails for a beautiful surprise during the annual “Share the Love” event.
Tualatin program coordinator Heidi Marx launched “Share the Love” in 2021 to give people a fun reason to leave their houses after nearly a year of COVID-19 pandemic distancing. She commissioned regional artists to create hand-blown glass hearts that city employee volunteers, dubbed “Heart Ninjas,” then hid around the city’s greenways.
In a Tualatin Life article, Marx says she did not anticipate how much the hearts would mean to some finders.
“We get so many messages [from people saying] that finding a heart gave them hope in such a dark time,” Marx says. “It was very profound for some people. Finding hearts when they’d just lost a loved one felt like a message.”
The city originally hid fewer than 200 glass hearts, but statewide attention began drawing heart hunters from afar. The city now plans to hide at least 400 of the glass treasures during the 2024 event.
Olympia, Wash.-based glass blower Timothy Jaquet created glass hearts for the event both last year and this year. The City of Tualatin website explains that Jaquet started blowing glass in 2015 when his wife surprised him with a two-hour private glass blowing lesson. He is now the driving force behind the glass pumpkin patch at West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta, a local fall festival that is known for its giant pumpkin boat races.
The Tualatin Life article reports that Jaquet prepared about 500 glass hearts for this year’s “Share the Love.” For those who cannot travel to Tualatin to partake in the treasure hunt, Jaquet offers discounted “mystery hearts” on his website during the month-long event.
Ultimately, “Share the Love” is meant to help people “find joy where you can,” says Margaret Gunther, Tualatin volunteer coordinator and Heart Ninja, in the Tualatin Life article.