A high school senior with a heart of gold made Valentine's season a
little sweeter for more than 800 girls in his Utah school by giving
every single one of them a flower for the holiday.
Smithfield resident Hayden Godfrey, 17, saved for a year and a half to
afford the $450 it cost to purchase 900 carnations from an online
wholesaler, he told ABC News today. He began earning the money by
working as a cook at a nearby McDonald's and a dishwasher at a Mexican
restaurant, and for the last 10 months, he's been bagging groceries at a
local store.
The gargantuan gesture resulted from years of buildup and planning.
Every Valentine's Day since he was 14, Godfrey would anonymously send
flowers to dozens of his friends, he said. Each year, the project grew
larger in scale until he ultimately decided he wanted to make "as many
people as possible" happy this Valentine's Day.
Godfrey's mother, Erin Godfrey, said he first got the idea in middle
school, when he noticed that some girls didn't receive anything on the
romantic holiday.
"That broke his heart on Valentine's Day," she told ABC News today,
calling her son a "sensitive soul." She added: "He wanted every girl to
feel joy."
Godfrey ordered the flowers to his home three weeks in advance and
enlisted the help of about 20 friends to help him process and cut the
24-inch stems after they arrived. He gave the carnations one day to
bloom before loading them all into his parents' van to bring them to Sky
View High School Thursday.
His girlfriend of six months and fellow classmate, 18-year-old Lilyan
Sharp, called Godfrey's gesture "very special" and said every girl
walked out of school with a "giant smile on their face."
"I, myself, spent a lot of Valentine’s Days not receiving anything," she told ABC News. "I know how it feels."
This year, Sharp received concert tickets from Godfrey to see A Great Big World in Salt Lake City on March 28.
Godfrey worked with school administration to pull off his Valentine's
Day plan. Assistant Principal Curt Hanks helped Godfrey by providing a
headcount of the number of female students enrolled at the school and
arranging for him and his friends to interrupt the last classes of the
day to pass them out.
"I think that he’s an amazing kid," Hanks said of Godfrey. "I’m speechless at his actions."
With the help of volunteers, Godfrey handed carnations to 834 girls on
Thursday. He hasn't yet decided what he'll do with the extra flowers,
but said he's sure he'll "find something."
"I don't think anything can compare to seeing every girl in your life
holding a flower as they walk through the halls," the self-professed
romantic wrote on Facebook.
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