The fifth annual "Hearts for Lancaster" Valentine's Day fundraiser, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Lancaster Penn Square, will kick off on Friday, Feb. 5. Large, personalized, red hearts will be suspended from the lamp posts in the downtown Lancaster area and will remain, declaring love and affection, for two weeks. The club will also continue celebrating love for fur babies by hanging people's choice of a dog bone, a heart, or a dog silhouette on the fence in front of Binns Park.

Proceeds from the event in past years have allowed the Penn Square club to purchase two new bicycles and radio equipment for the Lancaster City Alliance's bike ambassadors, equipment for Arbor Place and North Star Initiative's Harbor House, scholarships for Music for Everyone, sewer guards for some of the sewer grates in Lancaster, park benches in the city of Lancaster, and more. In 2021, proceeds will support the creation and installation of the city's public art program sponsored "Diversity Mural" to be installed on West King Street in July. The club is also working to adopting Penn Square and its monument through the city's Adopt a Block Program.

Club members will work at The Holiday Inn through approximately Wednesday, Feb. 10, putting names on the hearts and assembling the hardware necessary to hang them. For more information, readers may contact Anne Williams at awilliams@desfint.com or 717-396-0474.