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WAKE FOREST -- A high school student in Wake County is making sure military families feel appreciated.

Wake Forest-Rolesville High School senior Holden McLemore started a fundraising effort called Hearts From Home.

“I always wanted to do something to give back to the military,” he said. “Valentine's Day is a holiday themed around love and it's so hard for them to be away from a loved one around Valentine's Day.”

So McLemore sells paper hearts at school for $1 each. He also works works with Wake Forest restaurants for a portion of their sales on scheduled fundraising nights.

He said he uses the money raised to throw a big party for military families with a loved one deployed.

In the past two years, Hearts From Home has raised $5,000.

“I had an opportunity be in last year's planning from the ground floor up and accompany him to Fort Bragg,” said National Honor Society advisor Laura Hartman. “[It was] simply awesome! It was a great, great experience! [The military families] are just appreciative for a day of relief where they can come and their children can have their faces painted. They enjoy food. They enjoy the puppet show and the clowns.”

While it's great for the military families, McLemore said it's special to him and his fellow students as well.

“It's always a very humbling thing when you talk to [the military families] because you forget,” he said. “They are so thankful we're doing something for them. But to us, we're so thankful for what they're doing for us.”

Hearts from home hopes to raise $5,000 this month.

There are two more restaurant fundraiser nights: Feb. 9 at Chick-Fil-A and Feb. 23 at the Forks, both in Wake Forest.

This year's party will be April 15 for families associated with the Army National Guard in Louisburg.