May's Awesome Ottawa award goes to Brittany Paulhus, to support groups of community volunteers making cards with messages of kindness and support for people who might need a little extra love. The project is called Love Letters from Anonymous.

“At our first event,” explains Brittany “we invited the public to help decorate Valentine’s Day cards for every person at ten women's shelters in Ottawa and the surrounding area. We also sent donation items including toiletries, feminine care products, bus tickets, makeup, and jewelry. The turnout for this grassroots event was unbelievable. More than 300 people showed up to participate and many others stopped by to drop off donations or to share stories of their own experience.”

“Our most recent event,” Brittany continues, “happened in time for Mother's Day, with a similar goal of sending messages of support to people staying in Ottawa's shelters. We again also collected and delivered donation items. My goal,” she says, “is to make this a quarterly project where people can submit ideas for who to send cards to next. We’ve already received some amazing ideas. One volunteer suggested we do a card workshop and school supplies drive in September for refugee families new to the country.”

Want to get involved? Love Letters from Anonymous is on Facebook and Twitter.

Brittany is an events coordinator at a national not-for-profit, and moved to Ottawa this year from Winnipeg.