Known as 'The Sweetheart City,’ Loveland, Colo. has been re-mailing valentines with a special cachet and postal cancellation since 1946. Since then, Loveland, Colo. has become world renown for its dedication to romance. Not only does the The Sweetheart City capture the essence of romance via its world-renowned Valentine Re-mailing program, but also via the many weddings and anniversaries celebrated here each year!

The Loveland Chamber of Commerce is happy to lead The Sweetheart City in helping others celebrate their romantic relationships by establishing and managing the world-renowned Loveland Valentine Program. This program includes the selection process of Miss Loveland Valentine, producing the annual “Official Loveland Valentine Card" and partnering with U.S. Postal Service in re-mailing more than 160,000 valentines each year. Each card is lovingly hand-stamped by volunteers during the first two weeks in February.

The Business Decorating Contest is another opportunity for Lovelanders to showcase our beautiful community and our affection for The Sweetheart City's favorite time of the year. Along with the wonderful Hearts program presented by Thompson Valley Rotary, the business decorating offers visitors to Loveland a chance to enjoy ambience of Valentine's Day.

The contest was conceived by the Loveland Chamber’s Marketing Resource Committee and launched in 2011.

“We want to use Valentine’s Day as a way to be an economic-driver for Loveland,” said John Metcalf, the Chamber's Marketing Resource Committee chair and principal of JM Designs. “Because it can be a slow time of the year, we wanted to create other reasons for people to come celebrate their Valentines weekend in Loveland, Colo.”

To learn more, plus obtain a copy of the brochure and application, please click here.

To see a list and/or vote online for the participating businesses, please click here.

Please note:
All voting ceases on Friday, Feb. 10th at 11:59am. Ballots wil be collected starting at noon.

2012 is the 66th anniversary for Loveland's Valentine Re-mailing Program, the largest of its kind in the nation.

The Loveland Chamber of Commerce and the United States Postal Service have been teaming up for 65 years with their internationally renowned Valentine Re-mailing Program. This program re-mails more than 160,000 cards each year from all 50 states and more than 110 countries.

Send Your Valentine's Through the Sweetheart City

Join more than 160,000 people across the world and send your valentine's through the city of Loveland, Colo. otherwise known as the Sweetheart City. Simply follow these instructions:

• Pre-address, pre-stamp all valentine’s and enclose them in a larger 1st Class envelope.
• All envelopes should be sent to:

Postmaster - Attention Valentines

446 E. 29th St.

Loveland, CO 80538-9998

• All valentines will be removed from the larger envelope at the post office.
• To ensure delivery by Valentine’s Day, U.S. destined mail must be received in Loveland byFeb. 9,Feb. 11if sending within Colorado and foreign mail must be received byFeb. 3. Proper postage must be affixed, especially for foreign mail.
• Colorado residents have the option to drop off their pre-addressed, pre-stamped valentines to local King Soopers or City Market food stores. Feb. 8 is the final day to drop off valentines at these locations.

Naturally, Lovelanders are very proud of their program that sends a message of love around the globe. In fact, there is a waiting list for people who would like to be one of the 60 plus volunteers who lovingly hand-stamp each card with a specially designed cachet for first two weeks in February.

To see our volunteer stampers enjoying the festivities and dancing to E.J. Bisiar's infamous "Please Be My Valentine" please click here.

The Loveland Chamber of Commerce holds a local contest to gather artistic designs and verses toward the development of a new cachet each year. The cachet is a four-line verse stamped on each envelope with a rubber stamp sending a message of love and hope to the world. The 2012 cachet was designed by Corry McDowell and the verse was written by Phyllis Kennemer.

From February 2nd through the 14th more than 60 volunteers come to the Chamber building to lovingly hand-stamp each Valentine card sent to 'The Sweetheart City.” As early as summer, inquiries from all over the world begin asking for directions on how to send their cards to Loveland so they will be stamped with the cachet and special postal cancellation.

Many of the valentines sent to Loveland have been accompanied by personal notes or letters. A grandmother in Detroit wrote of her young granddaughter who was dying in a Detroit hospital. She asked that the enclosed valentine be sent as soon as possible. The valentines were re-mailed promptly along with additional valentines from the Loveland Chamber of Commerce and Loveland postal employees.

A Brooklyn, New York lawyer wrote: “I just wanted to thank you for making this just a little nicer country to live in. People like myself who were born and reared in these great United States seem to take everything for granted until someone like you comes along and reminds us that we are very, very lucky.”

The valentines come in all shapes and sizes and range from handmade to elaborate. Many of the cards are addressed to individuals unknown by the stamping crew, but some famous recipients have included Lady Bird Johnson, Abigail Van Buren, Oprah Winfrey, President Barack Obama and others.

To receive this unique Loveland cancellation and valentine cachet, enclose your pre-addressed envelopes affixed with the proper postage in a larger 1st Class envelope.

Mail to:
Postmaster - Attention Valentines
446 E. 29th St.
Loveland, CO 80538-9998

Your valentines will be removed from the larger envelope at the Post Office. To ensure delivery by Valentine’s Day, U.S. destined mail must be received in Loveland by February 9, February 11 if in Colorado, and foreign mail must be received by February 3. Proper postage must be affixed, especially foreign.

The Loveland Chamber of Commerce each year produces the “official Loveland valentine card.” This card is generated from the creative works of local artists and residents who design the card front, inside verse, and the cachet stamp.

The 2012 official Loveland Valentine card is comprised of the work of Loveland artist Jessica Benes (card design winner) and local author Sheri Cobb South (card verse winner). Sold throughout northern Colorado, in Loveland and now online, the 2012 official Loveland Valentine features a sweeatheart shape coupled with several historic Loveland, Colo. landmarks. The valentine can be purchased for $2.25 via the Loveland Chamber of Commerce and several retailers in northern Colorado, including King Soopers, Safeway, Walgreens and Wal-mart and the Loveland Visitors Center.

Card verse:
Each February, while the year is still new,

The Sweetheart City has a job to do.

From the plains in the east to the peaks in the west,

We bring Valentine greetings from those you love best.

If you choose, you may purchase the valentine online and we will ship the purchase to the purchaser address of choice. Fees for shipping and handling will be added.

You may also have the card signed on your behalf by us and immediately submitted in the Valentine Re-mailing Program. To purchase cards please visit the our online store.

Click here to view the 2012 Official Loveland Valentine (both the front cover art work and the inside art work and verse).

Click here to view the 2011 Official Loveland Valentine (both the front cover art work and the inside art work and verse).

Since 1962, Loveland has been selecting a Miss Loveland Valentine. The title of Miss Loveland Valentine has been held with honor and pride as this young woman spends the next year representing the community of Loveland. The selected high school senior who becomes Miss Loveland Valentine also receives scholarship funds toward her college education awarded from a trust established by the founders of the Loveland Valentine Program, Ted and Mabel Thompson.

It is a wonderful opportunity for each of these young women to become more comfortable with public speaking and grow in self-confidence during their tenure. Miss Loveland Valentine will travel to Denver to meet the governor and be presented to the Colorado State Legislature. She will also speak to many of Loveland's community nonprofit organizations and service clubs, and will be featured in television, radio and newspaper media across the nation.

The criteria are as follows:
• Must be a high school senior
• Must be a Loveland resident
• Must have a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA and be able to maintain it throughout the term
• Must have adequate public speaking skills
• Must be allowed to travel
• Must be able to miss school (approximately two weeks in January and two weeks in February) without hampering her school requirements
• Must be able to attend evening meetings
• Currently holding leadership roles in high school and community activities
• Must be a college-bound student

She will also be judged on the following qualities:
• Poise
• Personality
• Positive attitude
• Appearance
• Intelligence
• Improvisational skills
• Speaking skills
• Ability to interact with all ages and nationalities
• Confidence
• Written essay
• Presentation to Thompson Valley Rotary

Miss Loveland Valentine 2011, Jamie Felton was announced on Nov. 4, 2010.

Miss Loveland Valentine 2010, Hillary Skeffington is currently attending the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Click here to view a list of previous Miss Loveland Valentines

For more than 40 years, the streets of the Sweetheart City have been lined each February with hundreds of wooden hearts. Many proclaim personalized words of affection, devotion and admiration in 25 letters or fewer. Thompson Valley Rotary has been managing the program for nearly 20 years.

Community members can request nearly anything written on the hearts, including notes in foreign languages and symbols. Each message will be stenciled on the heart with the help of local students. Proceeds of the sales go to help children locally and abroad through the Thompson Valley Rotary Club.

With about 300 hearts for sale, you need to order soon as they sell out quickly!

• To order a personalized wooden heart, visit our online store or call The Group Real Estateat 663-0700 or 613-0700.
  • You may also visit one of The Group Real Estate Loveland offices: 1401 W. 29th St. or 5401 Stone Creek Circle
  • Cost for a personalized heart is $45; personalized T-shirts, $25; commemorative T-shirts, $20.
  • Last day to order hearts: Feb. 1.
  • For more information, e-mail Lindsay Cantley at lindsaycan@yahoo.com.

According to Gwen Masche, daughter of stamp collector and history buff Count Masche; Elmer Ivers (Loveland Postmaster in the 1940s and ‘50s), Harold Dunning, Rome Dietrich and others from the Loveland Stamp Club came up with an idea of a Re-mailing Program as a stamp collection oddity, rather than a Sweetheart angle. The club tried to promote the program for a couple of years but realized they needed someone with more marketing abilities.

Ted Thompson, who managed Loveland’s Rialto Theater and served as president of the Loveland Chamber of Commerce was asked to help because of his renown marketing skills. Ted realized that Loveland, Colorado had a unique opportunity to share a little love and friendship with the people of the USA, and indeed, the world through the Valentine Re-mailing Program.

The program gained nationwide exposure when Guy Lombardo was designated honorary mayor of Loveland on February 14, 1950. Lombardo’s orchestra, The Royal Canadians, had recorded the song, “There’s a Lovely Lake in Loveland” and featured the song during the program. As Forrest S. Knox declared in a letter to the Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald dated February 8, 2001, “They could not have found a better person to shepherd their Valentine activity. He and Mabel, even though it was not their idea, were responsible for the success of the Re-mailing Program. They did a superb job of managing the program for the rest of their lives.” Now, in its 64th year, the program is growing every year.

Loveland’s “Valentine Sweethearts,” as they are affectionately referred, Ted and Mabel Thompson have since passed away and the Loveland community feels their absence. To commemorate their vision and love of Loveland, their memory lives on through this annual program and the people of Loveland. A bronze relief of the Thompsons is featured in Thompson Park in Downtown Loveland.

Today, the Loveland Chamber of Commerce continues to operate the program, in partnership with the Loveland Post Office. The Loveland Post Office creates a special cancellation annually.