Some ISU students celebrated Valentine’s Day early this year, giving a group of local children some tasty treats.

Members of the Human Development and Family Studies Club helped children garnish Valentine’s Day cookies at the Boys and Girls Club of Ames, 210 S. 5th St., on Wednesday afternoon.

Nine HDFS Club members helped more than 50 children decorate cookies with frosting and candies. The kids were divided into groups of five for one-on-one interaction with ISU students.

Marty Lester, program director for the Boys and Girls Club, said the children enjoyed the event.

“Our kids think that college students are really neat,” he said. “They want to be like them.”

The youngsters weren’t the only ones having fun Wednesday. Sara Harringa, president of the HDFS Club, said it’s a great experience for club members, too.

“It’s a bonding experience for a club to do things in the community,” she said. “When you get your group together to do something like that, it’s just really rewarding, and you can see the benefits right away.”

This is only one of the activities HDFS Club is doing for the holiday. Members also filled out Valentine’s Day cards for Mainstream Living, a group for mentally handicapped people, and they are selling Valentine grams.

Harringa, senior in child and family services, said the club members chose to plan activities for Valentine’s Day because it is often easier to get involved with the community during the holidays.

“A lot of people do things for Christmas, and we decided because of that we wanted to do a different holiday,” Harringa said.

Lester said the Boys and Girls Club of Ames has gotten a lot of assistance in the past from Iowa State.

“The university really helps us out a lot,” he said. “It’s such a great feeling knowing that we have the support of the university. I can say that just about every department at the university has shown us some kind of support.”

Hy-Vee donated the cookies for the children to decorate. The rest of the decorations were financed by the Boys and Girls Club.