This Friday will be a day about the heart, one set aside to celebrate love of all kinds — love shared among couples, families, friends, our neighbors, even our classmates.

Boxes laden with chocolates, fresh cut and colorful bouquets, shiny jeweled trinkets and, of course, roses in every color and number will be showered upon the people we most love in the world today, the tokens of our affection, offered as we celebrate St. Valentine’s Day.

In its most commercial sense, it’s a day that millions of dollars will be spent to express emotions that, quite frankly, we should express every day of the week, whether there’s an occasion to do so or not. Whether it’s a simple “I love you,” a tender card of remembrance or a more lavish gift, most of us, however, have chosen Valentine’s Day as the day to pour out our hearts to those dearest to us.

And there is nothing wrong with the celebrations and those who choose to express their love on this special day. In fact, we applaud them. Anytime one can, and will, show love to another is laudable.

But today, as we examine love, we turn to a deeper sense of the emotion, one shown to strangers.

We see it time and time again in Sampson County. Whether stranger or friend, if there is a need, we come together, finding a way to raise money to help.

Since Hurricane Helene ravaged the western part of our state, we have seen an outpouring of compassion — and actions to match — to help those in our mountains. From students helping to provide graduation caps and gowns for a high school whose teens — and their parents —were hardest hit by the brutal storm to churches, civic groups and other non-profits making the four-hour or more trek to the hills with water, clothes, blankets and as sundry other needed items, the cry for help has been heard and answered.

Love has been shown.

It’s not unique either. We recall groups gathering supplies and raising money on the side of the road after 9/11, and again gathering case after case of water to send to the people of Flint, Michigan when they had their severe water crisis.

In most cases, those who have been helped are strangers. Many times, we don’t know their faces nor names, we don’t know their political affiliations nor religions, but we understand and ache for their plight, and we rush to their aid.

It’s true in pretty much every case. Someone in our community is diagnosed with cancer and has little financial support for the treatment they need. Before long, an event is organized, food is cooked, tickets are sold and funds are raised. Golf tournaments are held, pancakes are flipped, checks are written and men and women put their own lives on hold long enough to volunteer their time.

While helping others isn’t uniquely Sampson, there’s still something special about the way people love in these parts — with their whole hearts, with their pocketbooks and with their time. Not once, not twice, but seemingly every time there is a call to action.

In a society where social media tries to persuade us there is no good in the world —and, yes, foreign actors and political hackers do try to poison our minds to that untruth —the actions of Sampsonians should show us differently, reminding each one of us that there really is far more good going on around our community than bad.

It doesn’t take a day set aside for hearts and flowers to get many in Sampson involved. It takes a need and a call to action. Perhaps it is because we know that good men and women cannot triumph over evil if they sit back and do nothing.