Six-year-old honored as Canyon Lake’s Citizen of the Month

The Canyon Lake City Council on Wednesday honored six-year-old Hadlee Card as Citizen of the Month. Hadlee was recognized for her efforts to foster a sense of community and promote love and kindness.

Hadlee came up with the idea of a Valentine’s Day card exchange with other children in the community. More than 200 children participated.

Addressing the kindergartener, Mayor Castillo said, “That kind of unity and spirit in our community makes you a very important person, a very important resident of Canyon Lake. We want more people to follow your lead and we are very grateful for you as a Canyon Laker.”

When Hadlee realized that she wouldn’t be able to exchange Valentine’s Day cards with her classmates this year, she asked her mom, Sarah Card, for permission to pass out Valentine’s Day cards to kids in the community.

Sarah reached out to her friends, via a Facebook post, and asked if their children would be interested in exchanging cards too. Nearly 40 moms responded to Sarah’s post.

Due to the positive response Sarah received, she created a Canyon Lake Valentine’s Day Facebook group and invited other families in the community to participate in the exchange. More than 200 children signed up to participate.

“I thought Hadlee was going to exchange Valentine’s Day cards with a few of her friends in the community, but this turned into something much bigger,” Sarah said. “Hadlee’s special Valentine’s idea grew into something even more amazing than she imagined. I’m so proud of her and her huge heart.”

Due to the popularity of the exchange, Sarah organized the participants into classroom-sized groups and then assigned each group to a section of the community. 

Each participant was asked to place a box on their porch so that the exchange could be done while social distancing. Most of the children customized their porch boxes. Participants delivered their cards between February 12 and February 14.