We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Daynie Rain a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Daynie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
I began Love Letters over 3 years ago in the midst of a really dark and lonely part of my life. At the time, I was spending every day at a park up the road from my house because it felt like the only place that I could truly “get away”. I’d sit on a big rock by the water and read and write and think. One day on the way home, I drove past a mailbox lying in the road, I stopped to grab it and it was from that point on that “Love Letters Mailbox” began. I brought the box to my favorite park the next time I went and attached it to one of the trees on the windy- root- covered path that led to the ocean shore. I filled the box with pens and a notebook and wrote an entry on the very first page that let future visitors know that this was a forum for them to share their hopes and dreams, their secrets, their sadness, their joys, or hopefully-to write a love letter to someone near or far…
When I set up that first mailbox, I had no real intentions of the project going anywhere beyond that. The only real goal at the time was to create a space for people to feel less alone. For me, it gave me something to look forward to each day- something to keep up with and to find joy in. I thought maybe people could find comfort in the shared experiences of those around them whether they may know them or not.
Fortunately, that hope came to fruition very early on. Within the first month of that simple black mailbox perched on a branch, people began opening up in the most vulnerable ways. Letters began filling the lined pages of the little blue notebook placed inside. Letters of hope, letters of desperation, letters of deep sadness and letters of love so tangible. One letter specifically has stuck with me deeply throughout the years. It was written by a father to his daughter who had passed the week before. He wrote about how without her, he had no sense of direction in life. Reading it broke my heart. Knowing that this man was experiencing one of the heaviest forms of loss that exists and that he felt comfortable enough to share his mourning with strangers touched my heart. It reminded me how connected we all are in this world that often feels so disconnected. I was reminded how important it is to foster that connectedness and to create spaces for it so it isn’t forgotten about. I was reminded how much better we could all be at loving those around us- even strangers. Reading this letter was, in a lot of ways, the catalyst for what “Love Letters” has grown to be. As for the man in the letter, I may never meet him or cross paths with him in any way other than through looking back on the letter he wrote 3 years ago, but his vulnerability changed me. I think of him often and pray for him frequently. There’s so much love to go around and I’m blessed to see that over and over again within these little mailboxes.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I began Love Letters Mailbox in early 2021. I wanted to create a space for people to connect and to foster the intentionality created by putting pen to paper. What began as just a personal project has grown into now a dozen mailbox locations across Florida, thousands of letters written including a marriage proposal, a clothing line that I get to design and hand-print alongside my best friends, and most recently, a pop-up shop out of my VW bus featuring a “love letter writing station” in the back. It’s been so fun to see all that “Love Letters” has developed into that I could’ve never expected or anticipated and it feels so sweet to have so many people on my team who desire to see it grow and to reach more people.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
A “clothing line” is something I never planned for but that came about very naturally as the project grew. One of my best friends does a lot of graphic design so I reached out to her to bring my vision and ideas to life and another close friend of mine runs a t-shirt printing company so we got to work together to individually screen print every single tee- something I’d never done before. We handle every aspect of designing, printing, and branding our products and It’s been so fun getting to be part of each step of the process and to do so with so many people who I love
We made so many mistakes along the way from quantity issues to faulty printing processes, etc. etc. but that’s to be expected with the launch of any business and something we’ve got a much better handle on with time and experience.
The company is to it’s core- made with love. By friends, for friends.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
After a few successful months of the first “Love Letters Mailbox” being in place, things began going south. I was still stopping by the mailbox every few days but every single time I visited, the notebooks and pens would be stolen, nasty letters would be left behind, or the mailbox would be vandalized in some way, or disappeared all together due to kids in the neighborhood. It was super discouraging especially after seeing how many people had found comfort in the space prior and how much joy it had brought me thus far. But day after day, I continued to check up, continued to replace the notebooks, and continued to attempt to keep the project going. As sad as it was to see something so special to me be destroyed over and over, that effort put in to maintain what seemed like a lost cause, is what eventually led to so many opportunities for new mailbox locations and for the project to become what it is today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lovelettersmailbox.com
- Instagram: lovelettersmailbox
- Facebook: lovelettersmailbox
