MURRAY, Utah — A Murray family is showing support for the people of Ukraine by printing out paper hearts with the Ukrainian flag on them and distributing them to neighbors. Alex Nelson, a physician’s assistant, says his 9-year-old daughter Carolyn came up with the idea after hearing about the current conflict in Eastern Europe.

“She had created these Ukrainian hearts, and it has the colors of the Ukrainian flag,” Nelson said. “And so, she had put that up in her window and shortly after she had done that, she had come downstairs wanting to do more.”

Nelson’s son Adam said he wanted to pitch in and help out. Adam wrote a message to accompany the hearts. The message asked for people to put the hearts on their window to show support for the Ukrainian people, and to pray for peace to come to those affected by what is happening in Eastern Europe. Sunny Nelson, the children’s mother, said the response to the hearts was positive.

“This just went on for three days and we started getting text messages and phone calls,” she said. “And there were even some messages on the neighborhood app of people just saying, this is so thoughtful. Thank you so much.”

Sunny also said the hearts not only helped people show their support for the Ukrainian people. It also brought them closer to their neighbors and even connected them with neighbors they did not know. She also said the hearts have gone out beyond their Murray neighborhood.

“I think there’s some being hung up in Texas, some in central Utah,” Sunny said.

The Nelsons say they are appreciative of their children’s efforts to be more aware of what is happening in the world.

“There’s so much going on and [our children] are so into current events and they love history,” Sunny said. “And so, they see what’s happening. And so, you try to explain it to them in a way they can understand. But they see things and they feel things and it affects them.”

The experience also brought the Nelsons to a realization about their children.

“It was something that uplifted me and kind of gave a little bit of courage and hope to my heart,” Alex Nelson said. “Like my wife, I’m grateful for their example. And again, sometimes we think we teach our children, but there’s often times that they teach us.”

Read more:

• Hundreds of Utahns show support to Ukraine on Capitol steps during ‘Stand With Ukraine’ rally
• Utah couple describes frantic journey to get out of Ukraine