Heart Bombing

Heart Bombing Downtown Sarnia

The Heart Bombing Project is a creative and community-driven initiative that brings attention to underutilized spaces in downtown Sarnia.

Originally started in the United States to raise awareness about historic buildings in need of preservation, heart bombing has since evolved into a movement that blends public art, advocacy, and urban revitalization.

We put our own twist on this concept by focusing on vacant buildings in Sarnia’s downtown core—spaces with untapped potential that could be transformed into vibrant community assets. With the help of students from a local French school, who cut out and decorated dozens of handmade hearts, we adorned these buildings with colourful displays and messages of love, encouraging residents to reimagine their future.

Beyond simply raising awareness, this project aims to inspire investment, encourage creative reuse, and highlight the role of citizen-led placemaking in shaping downtown’s future. The installation also helped drive foot traffic to local businesses, sparking conversations about the possibilities for these spaces and how community involvement can drive change.

By turning vacant buildings into canvases for expression, the Heart Bombing Project demonstrates that even overlooked spaces have value—and with creativity and collective effort, they can become something new.

Project Goals

Goal 1

Raise Awareness: Highlight vacant storefronts and buildings as potential assets for downtown renewal.

Goal 2

Encourage Community Engagement: Involve residents in a creative, grassroots effort to show love and hope for Sarnia’s downtown spaces.

Goal 3

Drive Foot Traffic: Encourage people to explore downtown and take notice of spaces that could be revitalized for business, housing, or public spaces.

Project Outcome

To measure the impact of this project, posters were attached to each heart-bombed building, explaining the initiative and inviting residents to fill out a survey about their experience. The response was overwhelmingly positive—every survey respondent enjoyed the project and expressed interest in seeing more initiatives like this to help breathe new life into downtown Sarnia.

The project also gained strong support on social media, where we received an outpouring of encouragement from the community. One particularly meaningful response came from Les Rapides, a local Francophone school. A teacher reached out, eager to involve her students in the initiative, recognizing the project as an opportunity for hands-on civic engagement. The students actively participated by cutting out paper hearts and writing positive messages of hope, love, and encouragement before they were displayed on vacant buildings.

As a Francophone school community, we believe in the importance of contributing positively to the larger community we are a part of. Participating in revitalization initiatives, such as showing some love to vacant properties in downtown Sarnia, allows our students to engage in meaningful, real-world experiences that promote civic responsibility, creativity, and a sense of belonging. This project aligns with our values of collaboration and community spirit. It also provides an opportunity for our students to showcase their cultural pride and linguistic diversity while contributing to a collective effort to enhance our city.

Thomas Koné, Principal of Les Rapides

With such enthusiastic participation and support, it’s clear that this pilot project was a success. The overwhelming community engagement demonstrates a strong appetite for more initiatives like this that blend creativity with advocacy for downtown revitalization. By sparking dialogue and inspiring action, the Heart Bombing Project has laid the groundwork for future efforts to reimagine and reinvigorate our city’s core.