Heart Hunts create connections through small acts of love

LOCAL EVENTS

Keep an eye out next time you are in downtown because you might stumble upon a small stone heart that will lead you to a big connection. John Holloway is a local ice truck driver who has been hiding hearts around the square for the public to find. He posts location clues on the local San Marcos facebook page, and the comments explode with citizens excited for the new hunt. Eventually the heart is found and then posted about in the comments where John re- wards them with an invitation to meet at Cafe on the Square for a friendly chat and a free gift card to the cafe.

“It all started when a friend of mine came over — it was either my birthday or Christmas — and she had this little fabric drawstring bag and she said, ‘Here, I figured you’d know what to do with these.’ It was full of these little pewter hearts, and I thought, wow those are cool I guess maybe I’m supposed to hand them out,” Holloway said. “So I did. I would give them to people I knew; one of them I sent to Canada, to this lady I became friends with on Facebook. She’s still got it there. Now these hearts are everywhere.”

Holloway started to leave the hearts around downtown anonymously.

“I don’t know if people found them or not,” Holloway said.

He would often place the stones in the mermaid statues hands, and when he would check back, the stones would be gone.

The scavenger hunt evolved after he was impacted by major life events.

“My wife had a stroke back in July, a pretty major stroke, and she was in the hospital up in Austin for eight days... She’s doing better. So they moved her out of there, and we came home. And I found in my life that when things are kind of in turmoil, I do better mentally if I can go out and do what I like to do,” Holloway said. “I never told anybody about what I was doing. I’ve given them to people, but wouldn’t it be cool if I left it somewhere and then made it kind of like a scavenger hunt for them to find?”

He wanted to take the hunt further by offering a reward beyond just the hidden heart. He started offering gift cards to his favorite local haunt, Cafe on the Square, to those lucky scavenger hunters.

And as it has grown, human connection is still the driving force.

“I was able to meet people, which if you can’t already tell I love meeting people. I really do, and that’s probably about 50% of why I do it,” Holloway said. “I hid the first one right over there on top of that plaque [outside Cafe on the Square]. I’m not gonna make it hard to find because the whole idea is to find it.”

The scavenger hunt brings joy to citizens, but Holloway is also equally fulfilled by brightening their day and by blessing them with a gift card and a personal connection. Holloway chose gift cards to Cafe on the Square because it acts as a safe place to meet the scavenger hunt winners and because he is a regular.

“It’s kind of a special place. I always tell people that there’s a lot of magic that’s happening in there that you don’t see in other places,” Holloway said of Cafe on the Square. “They’ve been really good to me; over the past six months, it’s been kind of difficult, but they were there. They kind of took care of me, even the guy that owns the place, so I feel like I owe them something.”

Almost every Saturday for the past 19 weeks John has hidden a heart and rewarded the finder with a gift card. He has plans to continue the heart hunt for as long as he can. Check the local Facebook group, San Marcos Local Stuff, for his posts hinting at the location of the hearts as well as selfies taken with the new friends he makes after meeting up with them at Cafe on the Square. Keeping an eye out on one’s next downtown roam could lead to a little love and a big connection.