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A brightly coloured SUV covered in thousands of handwritten messages turned heads in Regina on Saturday as a Toronto couple continues a cross-country journey aimed at spreading a little more love and connection.
Andrei Bondarenko and his girlfriend, Maria, launched what they call The World’s Biggest Interactive Heart, an online monument built from personal messages about love, relationships, hope and human connection.
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To promote the project, the pair transformed their Nissan Murano into a moving display of approximately 2,000 colourful notes submitted by people from around the world and began driving across Canada.
Bondarenko said the idea grew from conversations the couple had about what they felt was missing in modern life.
“Love and romance has always been important to us, and lately we’ve been looking around and started noticing that love has really taken a back seat in this modern day world,” Bondarenko said.
“It has become very transactional. Our attention span is very divided, and everything is really driven by negativity. So we wanted to create something beautiful and uplifting that would unite people and remind them that love is truly the most important thing holding all of us together.”
The online monument launched about a week before the trip began. Since then, the couple has travelled through Ontario and Manitoba before arriving in Saskatchewan.
Bondarenko said the response from Canadians has exceeded expectations.
“Everywhere people are just flocking to the car, they’re reading the notes, they’re going to the website,” he said.
“We’ve had quite a few submissions, and overall what we’re noticing is that when people are seeing our car, they’re very happy. The smiles come on their faces automatically.”
The pair made stops in Toronto, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Winnipeg before reaching Regina. While they did not organize a public event in the Queen City, Bondarenko said the journey itself has created opportunities to meet people and hear their stories.
“Some people have even left us handwritten notes on our car saying this is a great mission, this is something beautiful,” he said. “And thank you for doing this because the world truly needs more of this right now.”
After Regina, the couple plans to continue west through Calgary and eventually to Vancouver, where they hope to host additional community events and conversations around the project.
Bondarenko said the goal was never to create a website. Instead, he hoped the project would encourage people to prioritize relationships and connection in their daily lives.
“We would love to remind people that no matter how busy our lives get, no matter what challenges we are facing throughout the day, just to keep love as the top focus and the priority in our lives,” he said.
“When you feel love in your heart towards your special person, towards your family, towards your friends, everything about your day gets better.”
He said he hopes the growing collection of messages can serve as a place people can visit when they need encouragement.
“If we can create a place of love that in this sometimes cynical world can bring more light to everyone’s life, so people can go, browse this interactive love monument and get a glimpse of love and a glimpse of hope, then we’ve done something worthwhile.”
People interested in contributing their own message can do so through the project’s website, houseof.love.
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