BATON ROUGE - This Valentine’s Day, Baton Rouge will show its love and appreciation for local military veterans with a unique and heartfelt display.

Large red hearts will be placed in the plaza in front of City Hall, each personalized to honor a local military hero. The "Hearts for Heroes" project is a collaborative effort by community volunteers.

Elena Branzaru, chair of the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Veterans Affairs, has been working alongside volunteers to personalize each heart with the name, military branch, and any honors or awards earned by the veterans being recognized.

According to Branzaru, they’ll be filling out more than 600 hearts and the goal is to reach 1,000. She expressed her commitment to ensuring that no veteran is left out of the tribute.

"No veteran or no person that submits a name will not have a heart. I will make sure that all submissions will have a heart," she said.

Each heart represents a veteran's sacrifice, with some even featuring specific medals, such as the Purple Heart, the highest military award for combat wounds.

“We want people to see all the different names of these heroes, we want them to notice and say, ‘Who is this person?’ Maybe they recognize someone,” Branzaru shared.

The event is more than just a tribute—it’s an opportunity for the community to honor the nearly 20,000 veterans in Baton Rouge, the largest veteran population in Louisiana.

"This is just a small way for us to let them know that Baton Rouge supports its veterans and its war heroes and we continue to support our military," Branzaru said.

The public is invited to attend the ceremony on Feb. 12 at 9 a.m. at the Davis Rhorer Plaza

The deadline to submit veteran names for this year’s display is Tuesday at 6 p.m. Email the veteran’s name and branch of service to mayorsveteranaffairs@brla.gov.