Healdsburg Business Sends 'Happy Valentine's Day' Greetings to Troops

Valentine’s Day is often the time for a romantic getaway. Sometimes it’s an opportunity to let the special person in your life know how you feel.

This Valentine’s Day just passed, however, was also a way for a local business to remember our men and women serving overseas.

Denise Trefry, owner of Tallulah, a home furnishings, jewelry and accessories shop, and business partner Kim Carpenter collected a total of 250 Valentine's Day cards from Healdsburg-area customers and veterans and delivered them to the troops overseas.

“Valentine’s Day can be commercial,” Trefry notes. “We wanted to do something small, yet personal, to show people who are a long way from home that we’re thinking of them.”

Tallulah opened last October at 226 Healdsburg Ave., roughly opposite h2hotel and Spoonbar restaurant.

Trefry, a native of Alaska, said she came to Healdsburg with a background in design, and wanted to open a shop that would not only serve as a design laboratory, but, as she describes it, would “be a light-hearted venture, a place where we can get people to look at color in a new direction,” she said.

The name, Tallulah, is an homage to the late movie star, Tallulah Bankhead -- widely known in her day as a free spirited, adventurous individual.

Trefry owned a design company and restaurant in Anchorage, and spent several years commuting from Sonoma County to Alaska.

Last July, she found her current location, with the help of local Realtor Eric Drew. Three months later, she and Carpenter opened their doors.

“Healdsburg has been very supportive,” Trefry notes, “not just tourists, but local people as well.”

As Valentine’s Day was approaching, Trefry and Carpenter had a meeting of the minds.

 “We feel lucky…What can we do to give something back?,” they said to each other, according to Trefry. And so their Valentine’s Day campaign began.

They decorated an old fashioned box (like the ones for students to place cards in at school) and placed it outside the store entrance.

Trefry and Carpenter purchased Valentine’s cards and invited visitors to address a card to either a male or female service member, and they would collect the cards and send them to our troops serving overseas.

The response was tremendous. A total of 250 cards were sent to APO addresses for distribution overseas on Feb. 1.

Many servicemen and women took the time to reply to their unexpected Valentine’s Day cards, thanking people for remembering them.

“We also heard from veterans’ wives,” Trefry says, “thanking us for our efforts.”

Many veterans stopped by the store to sign a card thanking current soldiers for their service.

Since this year’s event was so well-received, the Valentine’s Day for troops will be an annual event, she added.

Tallulah will soon have an online store. The shop can be contacted at 707-473-2877 or at www.mytallulah.com.