February 14 is often marked with chalky heart candies, a rainbow assortment of roses, and plenty of red, pink, and white cards tucked into mailboxes. For widows, though, Valentine’s Day can be drenched in grief.

Brighten Up Nashville (www.brightenupnashville.com) reminds these women they are not alone by delivering bright bouquets and treat-filled gift bags. A non-profit established in 2023 by Mike and Angie Hurst of North Nashville, Brighten Up’s mission, stated on its website, is to “lead our community to build meaningful relationships with these sweet women who are sometimes overlooked on a day that can be very hard for them.”

“One day a year is powerful,” says Angie, having walked alongside the journey of widowhood with several close friends throughout the past eight years.

Watching her friends navigate that season left Angie praying for God’s guidance.

“I didn’t want to forget them, so the Lord started stirring within my heart to do something,” she says.

That’s when she came across Ashley Manning’s Instagram page. Ashley is a Charlotte, NC woman who started a Valentine’s Day Widow Outreach Project called Watch Love Grow. Angie had planned to go to Charlotte and volunteer with Ashley’s organization as she and Mike tried to figure out “what doing something like that here would look like.”

Instead, Mike encouraged Angie to use the travel funds to dig in immediately. Together, the Hurts were able to gift seven ladies that inaugural year of 2023. They instantly knew this was what they wanted to do, so they began spreading the word to their family and friends, asking business owners if they would collaborate with them on the logistics of their mission.

“Our friends who own Chef’s Market [Cafe in Goodlettsville] connected us with a PR firm, Parthenon Public Relations,” says Angie. “Donating their time, Parthenon put the word out and grew the list of recipients from 90 to 180 within one day. They really helped expand our reach to Nashville and Murfreesboro, bringing us women we truly did not know about.”

Parthenon wasn’t the only area business to lend support. Forty Nashville-area businesses stepped in to provide funding and donated items.

Volunteers assembled to create the bouquets, stuff the gift bags, and make deliveries. Moms, kids, grandparents, grandkids, and college students all showed up in Valentine’s attire to bring surprise blessings around the community.

“We had widows calling and asking to deliver to widows who had a similar story,” says Angie.

Lindsey was one of those volunteers. Suddenly widowed at the age of 37 with four young kids, she says it was other widows who gave her hope.

“I could look at them and see them not only surviving, but thriving,” Lindsey says. “And that’s exactly what I want to be for other widows.”

Brighten Up Nashville was her door of opportunity.

“Angie matched me with another young widow,” says Lindsey. “I was able to be the first to really let her know she was going to make it.”

“What this does,” explains Angie, “is bring awareness to the widows you have in your life. Our goal is to double or even triple those we visit next year.”

Growing from seven recipients in 2023 to 228 this year, Brighten Up Nashville is on pace for such a record.

“My phone was buzzing all day Wednesday and Thursday with messages like, ‘I don’t know how you found me, but thank you,’” says Angie.

Powerful. One bouquet at a time. One door knock at a time. One day that tinges the ones to follow in a beautiful shade of hope.

For more information, please check out www.brightenupnashville.com