Every four years, we add an extra day to the calendar to synchronize the calendar year with the solar year, since the amount of time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun is 365 ? days ? a leap year has 366 days.

To celebrate this special year, HIVE: a hub of positive reproductive and sexual health, launched its ?Leap of Love? campaign during the month of February to raise funds for its program. Shannon Weber, Director of HIVE, and LoveYou2.org renegade artist extraordinaire, teamed up with San Francisco-based crowdfunding company YouCaring, which provides free fundraising and support for humanitarian causes.

On February 4, Shannon installed her art in YouCaring?s Compassion in Action Gallery located at 49 Geary St. in San Francisco. Scores of HIVE supporters, local art enthusiasts, and passersby gathered together to be renegade artists for a night ? all for a good cause. Several visitors wrote love notes and hung them up on the wall. Others exhibited their inner street artist and spray painted wooden signs. The love for HIVE was definitely felt that evening, with supporters raising almost $700. Click here for more on the February 4 First Thursday event.

On February 29, the Leap of Love goes full circle, just like the Earth around the Sun, when we take the art and love from the YouCaring gallery to the streets of San Francisco! Make a donation to our campaign here and you?ll get to join Shannon Weber on an artist walk ? she?ll show the group how to look for places to hang signs, and we?ll post our public displays of affection all around the neighborhood.

Join us on Monday, February 29 at 5:30PM (49 Geary St. Suite 235), as we leap into love and leave love notes for those who may just need a little hint of hope on this beautiful planet.

 

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Karishma Oza is the HIVE Program Coordinator based at San Francisco General Hospital. Her passions include: reproductive health and rights, HIV treatment and prevention, health equity, and increasing access to care globally. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, gardening, cooking, biking, volunteering, traveling, potluck dinner parties, listening to people?s life stories, and learning new languages. Follow her on Twitter: @karishma_oza.