SACO — When a Valentine-themed community meal is delivered to 350 area residents on Monday Feb. 13, there will be a little something extra tucked into the package.

Each recipient who signed up for the meal, offered by Age Friendly Saco and Ferry Beach Retreat & Conference Center, will also get a special Valentine card, designed locally by students at Thornton Academy, and then signed with a message.

There are Valentine heart designs, cards bearing drawings of bouquets of roses or spring flowers, cute little animals — and even “aliens” — with phrases designed to elicit a smile.

It is a little extra, a happy plus, along with the tasty meal.

The Valentine cards are an annual project of the Thornton Academy Digital Design class taught by Lori Smith. Students digitally draw and submit designs for the cards and 10 are chosen and printed — 35 of each in this case.

Mackenzie Ames’ “out of this world” card, complete with an alien creature, took about 45 minutes to design, she said. And she added, she thought the play on words was fun.

“When we were first given the assignment, the teacher said animal cards work best and people like puns,” said Isabella Loignon, “so right off the bat I thought of this,” she said, pointing to the card’s message “you’ve weaseled your way into my heart,” with a design of a charming little weasel.

Andre Sauvageau chose a bouquet of roses and other red flowers for his card, and said he likes to take extra steps beyond the design program to enhance his drawings.

Zoe Pennell chose a bouquet of spring flowers and has taken the digital design course for four years.

“When I took it the first year, I loved it, and kept at it,” she said.

Pennell said after she first decides what she is going to design, she draws her ideas on an iPad and enjoys doing so more, she said, than she does on paper.

On a recent day, students were thinking ahead to St. Patrick’s Day designs for another project.

Smith, the teacher, said the class regularly does work for nonprofits, like Age Friendly Saco, the city’s parks and recreation department, Saco Police, Saco Main Street, and others.

The St. Patrick’s Day designs are for an event poster, and after that, students were to design a bumper sticker for a  boy’s lacrosse team.

National Honor Society and Interact students plus some digital design class members will write messages on the cards and sign them — providing a sweet, locally-produced memento of the day a volunteer brought a homemade, Valentine’s Day themed meal to their door.