Love was in the air as Valentine’s Day approached, and while some anticipated the holiday, shopping for gifts and preparing a date with that special someone, others were left alone. Valentine’s Day as a holiday is complicated — a day that brings joy to others makes many single individuals feel left out and lonely.
This feeling of loneliness and isolation is exactly the reason Austin Rowland, CE ‘24, and Jared Abrahamian, first-year M.S. ARCH, co-founded Spread Love, an organization whose annual cookie giveaway spreads Valentine’s festivities to all students on campus regardless of relationship status.
“Three years ago, we were both single for the first time on Valentine’s Day in a long time, and felt the need to do something positive for the community,” Abrahamian said.
Unlike some casual conversations with friends where ambitious plans often do not pan out, Rowland and Abrahamian followed through.
“I said to Austin, ‘Hey, would it be crazy if we baked a bunch of cookies and gave them out on campus for Valentine’s Day to spread love and positivity?’ And he turned back to me and said, ‘Yes, that sounds crazy, but let’s do it,’” Abrahamian said.
That first year in 2023, Rowland and Abrahamian worked alone, baking all of the cookies themselves.
“The first year we did it, and we pretty much didn’t sleep for three days as we were doing it, we thought it was a lot of work,” Rowland said.
While the experience brought them closer together, Rowland and Arbrahamain acknowledge how stressful it was to bake so many cookies in their tiny apartment oven. The pair reached out to friends for help the second time around, wanting to make more cookies and have more fun doing it.
“We tried a little bit to organize a team around it, as we doubled the number of cookies we were doing from 500 to 1000, and we had, like, two friends that were able to help out with some of the cookie baking and stuff,” Rowland said.
The duo was surprised by the support they received from friends, family and even strangers. This year, every cookie came with an affirmation, a positive sentence, to encourage people and make them feel warm and fuzzy inside.
“We had people submit handwritten notes from around the world as well. And it was cool. They submitted their location, and we had people away from Saudi Arabia and Europe submitting,” Abrahamian said.
Since the first cookie giveaway, Spread Love has garnered an incredibly positive reaction from those receiving the cookies and those baking them.
“We had 15 students handing out cookies, all this crowd there enjoying the event, and we were just looking back on it ourselves … in disbelief that we had created this thing that could run on its own now and become a real thing in Georgia Tech,” Abrahamian said.
This year, the event took place on Wednesday, Feb 16. under a constant downpour. Students may have noticed quite the hustle and bustle near the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons. Rowland, Abrahamian and their fellow Spread Love members did not let the rain get them down. The whole group had more energy than ever, ushering students to take a treat with them on the way to their next class.
Spread Love baked a total of 2548 cookies this year, showing how much this small idea between friends has grown, even involving other student organizations like SMILE and the Ramblin’ Reck Club, who brought the Ramblin’ Reck with them for students to admire at the event.
“We leveraged our connections on campus to different organizations. We reached out to everybody that we knew, and we were like, ‘Hey, we really want to make this happen.’ The Ramblin’ Reck Club got super, super excited about it,” Abrahamian said.
While the cookie giveaway is their biggest event on the one day dedicated to love, Abrahamian and Rowland emphasized the importance of spreading love year-round.
“I think one of the awesome things to do is just focus on your circle of influence. Me and Jared were fortunate enough to know a lot of people at school. But even if you know five people at school, do what you can to make a difference on those people, focus on giving them a little extra love,” Rowland said.
“Just taking the moment to recognize the people in front of you every day that make Georgia Tech as great of a place as it actually is. And that goes for recognizing the incredible staff that we have,” Rowland said. “Letting people know that you appreciate them and recognize them really makes a difference.”