COUNTYWIDE : Children Bare Hearts at Cemetery

More than 150 children with scissors, glue and crayons staked out spots on the grass at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress on Tuesday and turned poster paper into valentines.

The event was the 20th annual valentine-making contest hosted by the cemetery for children throughout Orange County.

“I really like it (the contest), but it’s weird,” said Christina Jackson, 12, laughing. “It’s a cemetery!”

She and other said they planned to send their valentines to the troops in the Middle East.

But one boy had a more traditional idea.

“I might send it to a girl I like--maybe,” he said.

The 25-minute contest “is a nice way for kids to come to a cemetery without the reason to see someone who’s passed away,” said Darin Drabing, vice president of the Cypress Forest Lawn branch. “It softens the experience for them, and they see the place for what it really is: a beautiful park with sunshine.”

Last year, Drabing said, some of the children placed their valentines on relatives’ gravestones.

This year, a 9-year-old named Meagan said she planned to give her valentine to her Uncle Milt “who’s buried here.”

Forest Lawn spokesman Dick Wicker said the contest was started as a public service in 1971.

“It’s not like being in a cemetery,” said parent Karen Fetteroll. “It’s like being in a park.”

The judges included the Cypress mayor, police chief and other officials.

“You want all the kids to win . . . they really get into it,” Mayor Walter Bowman said.