On Valentine’s Day, 18 Westbrook High School Key Club kids dragged themselves out of bed early and braved the cold morning in Portland to raise money for the Wayside Soup Kitchen.

For the second year in a row, the kids from the Key Club went into Portland, donned big Share-Your-Heart t-shirts over their jackets and canvassed the downtown streets for donations from people heading into work.

“It’s an exciting morning,” said Elinor Redmond, interim executive director of the Wayside Soup Kitchen. “You’re out there with the kids, and they don’t necessarily know where they’re going. They’re energetic. They’re wearing big t-shirts. It’s freezing. It’s early. The most fun about this is the Key Club kids because they’re so cute out there.”

Staying mostly within the area between Monument Square and Commercial Street between 7:15 and 8:45 a.m., the kids approached anyone and everyone-armed with their t-shirts, stickers similar to those at voting polls, and large Wayside/Share-Your-Heart cups for collecting change and bills. When they returned to the bus, the Westbrook students had helped raise almost $1,650 along with about 60 other kids from five other area high schools.

“I’m pretty involved with community service in the Key Club,” said Westbrook senior Jason Aceto, 18. “This is just another opportunity to do that.”

In its second year, the purpose of the fundraiser is to help defray the costs of operating the soup kitchen. Last year on Valentine’s Day, the students were able to raise about $3,000. The fundraiser last year also targeted corporate sponsors and raised another $27,000 for a total of $30,000, or 10 percent of the soup kitchen’s annual operating costs.

This year the organization doesn’t expect to raise quite that much, which Redmond attributes to Hurricane Katrina and other causes. “People have been hit hard this year,” she said. “But people are helpful, very generous.” One man, she said, came into the soup kitchen after the event was over and donated $100, saying he wasn’t in the area when the kids were going around.

“Most people were very generous and pretty kind,” said Aceto, in his second year at the event. “There’s a good attitude about the place.”

Redmond said that the soup kitchen has received another $5,125 so far this year from local businesses including Hannaford Bros. Co., Banknorth, Verrill & Dana LLP, Gorham Savings Bank, Sysco Food Services, and Dead River Company. She hopes to get a total of between $15,000 to $20,000.

The Wayside Soup Kitchen provides evening meals for an average of 200 people every night of the week, 365 days a year. It also serves lunch for an average of 150 people five days a week. At the same time its staff work to raise the organization’s profile in the Portland area and to maintain its base of 1,800 volunteers serving the meals.

Members of the Westbrook High School Key Club spent Valentine’s Day morning in Portland raising money for the Portland Wayside Soup Kitchen. The effort was part of the Share-Your-Heart Fundraiser.

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