Campus Events + Entertainment is spreading the love this Valentine’s Day through their annual Crushgrams event, where students can send bottles of Crush to their special someone or friends. 

During the event, students can send up to 10 bottles of Crush soda with a personalized note for free. Submissions for Crushgrams opened Jan. 21 and closed Feb. 8 to allow time for E+E members to print out and organize the submitted notes in addition to ordering all of the sodas. This year, 2,254 Crushgrams were ordered and are available for pickup from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the E+E office on the fourth floor of the Texas Union on Valentine’s Day. An email notified students if they received a Crushgram, along with instructions for pickup. 

“(Crushgrams are) something special that you can just anonymously send to other people,” E+E president Mario Aparicio said. “It’s a way to embrace your affection or friendship towards someone else for free and in a nice way, especially on Valentine’s Day.” 

Sports management senior Aparicio said Crushgrams started eight years ago, when the Union building reopened after a period of renovations. The University noticed students were spending less time in the reopened building after finding other places to gather, Aparicio said. In an attempt to get more students to visit the Union, the Crushgram event was created and became a UT Valentine’s Day tradition.

“I always do stuff for my friends,” biology freshman Allyssa Stancil said. “Last year I got them Valentines and I gave them handwritten notes and candy. I’m really poor this year, so when I found out you could send out (Crushgrams) for free, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll just do that instead.’”

Funding for this event and others hosted by E+E comes from a percentage of every student’s tuition.

“We (spend) a percentage of our tuition fees on everyone, and making meaningful events for others is what we aim for,” Aparicio said. “I want people to take advantage of it because it’s coming out of their pockets.”

Zayda Lopez, E+E vice president of publicity, said planning begins in November when E+E has to order all the bottles.

“I hope people feel … excited because we do this event for students,” said Lopez, a management information systems senior. “We hope this brightens up (a) student’s Valentine’s Day.”