DUNEDIN, Fla. — Love is a powerful thing. It can heal, but also hurt. 

What You Need To Know

  • Daynie Cutler started setting up mailboxes around Pinellas County in 2021. Inside was a notebook, a pen and the words on the side that read, 'Love Letters'

  • Cutler said writing letters, and leaving them for others to share in and see, helped heal her broken heart at the time

  • Cutler recently purchased a VW Bus and plans to spread the mailboxes to other other states 

  • To follow the Love Letter Mailbox project, click here

Daynie Cutler knows this at just 19 years-old.

At 17, her heart was broken. Her first love had ended. Like many going through heartbreak, she needed a place to get away to think. 

She would come to Hallett Park in Bellaire, to a secluded place she calls The Cliffs. 

“It’s more just kind of crazy to think about how desperate I felt in those times and how not desperate I feel now," said Cutler. 

Like most first loves, it is consuming. It's hard to think of anything else when experiencing it. So to sort through those emotions, she turned to another love. 

“I love writing so I would just write how I was feeling," said Cutler. "I would write poetry kind of, and just the things that I missed, and the things that I didn’t miss. And the things I was feeling that day.”

Her own sort of therapy, the written word.

She poured her heartache into daily love letters. While writing day after day, an idea came to her. 

One day I was just like, I need to come up with something to help me get out of this rut that I am in," said Cutler. 

She took an old mailbox, and put her love letter inside. 

Then thought, others might also want to do the same. So she put up a mailbox, with the words 'Love Letters' painted in white on the side, there at Hallett Park.

“For me it was kind of like, if people don’t write it in it, it gives me something to check up on. And I can write in it if I like. But then as time went on, more and more people started writing in it," said Cutler. 

People wrote about hope, love, loss and sorrow. 

It seems people just have a need to put pen to paper, and leave it all on the page. 

“It requires another level of intentionality and vulnerability that I think makes it a lot more special. And you can communicate that things that might not, otherwise just say to the person," said Cutler. 

She bought several mailboxes with her Dad, and placed them all over Pinellas County. 

“I like them kind of hidden, I like them kind of, like I kind of like when people have to seek them out. I don’t want it to be just plain sight for anybody to find," said Cutler. 

She often picks locations with special meaning. 

“There is one park where I have one at where my parents had their first kiss, so I think that is cute," said Cutler. 

It brings her joy to read the notes, and recall her favorites. 

"It was like, one had written on this page, and the other had written on the other, and they were writing about how they loved each other. And it was so cute," said Cutler. 

For the last two years, these letters have shown Cutler love on many levels.

“Yeah, love is definitely selfless," said Cutler. 

It's also inspired her to keep her Love Letter Mailbox project going. 

“I actually just bought a VW bus, so I am hoping to next year to travel full time, or somewhat full time and expand to other states as well," said Cutler. 

As for her heart, it's mended from that first break, and she does still believe in love. Though she will tell you she is not in love at the moment. 

“If something does happen, I am open to it," she adds with a smile and a hopeful shrug.

Cutler has an Instagram account for people to follow her project, and to find the mailboxes.