Keeping people’s bodies warm at this time of the year is important. So is warming people’s hearts anytime.

The Beaufort County Department of Social Services and Community Hospice will be doing both from Valentine’s Day through Feb. 21.They are conducting a project that addresses area residents’ physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

The project will place scarves, gloves and hats on trees in Washington. Why? First, it will provide warm clothing for area residents, and, second, it will help raise awareness of area hospice services.

The project — endorsed by the City Council during its meeting Monday — is being managed by Community Hospice and the Beaufort County Department of Social Services. The items will hang from trees at Festival Park, Havens Gardens and across from Bill’s Hot Dogs in front of the Grace Martin Harwell Senior Center. The items will be hung today, according to Amy Brewer, hospice care coordinator with Community Hospice, and Lori Leggett, supervisor of Department of Social Services’ adult and aging unit.

On each item a label will read: “I am not lost. If you need me, please take me. Warmly, Community Hospice & DSS.”

The items are available to anyone. At the end of the project, leftover items will be distributed to the area’s homeless population and low-income housing residents.

Brewer and Leggett told the City Council the local is similar one conducted by a business in Pennsylvania.

Perhaps other organizations will hear about the Pennsylvania project and the Washington project and be inspired to replicate them.

The project’s goal of providing warm clothing to people is self-explanatory. The project’s other goal of raising awareness about hospice is also commendable.

“It’s really awareness. We thought we’d bring something like this here. A lot of times when people hear the word ‘hospice,’ they have an immediate feeling of death; there’s a stigma that I constantly try to get people past,” Brewer told the council. “Hospice is about living. It’s not about dying.”

This project is about helping others to live better lives. That’s heartwarming.

For more information about the project or hospice services, contact Community Hospice (222 Stewart Parkway, Washington) by calling 252-946-0312 or the Department of Social Services (632 W. Fifth St., Washington) by calling 252-975-5500.