Chocolates go stale. Candies rot your teeth. Flowers die.

So Evanston residents are getting creative.

For this Valentine’s Day, Evanston resident June Cathcart-Smith made a video for her sweetheart – but not the kind you’re thinking of. Her film is a proclamation of love to her husband of 13 years.

Cathcart-Smith, 57, and five or six others filmed messages with the Evanston Community Media Center that will air on public television tonight. The new film stars also have copies of their messages on DVD. Their reasons for selecting the video option varied from a desire to have a lifelong memento to an interest in trying something new.

“I love to surprise (my husband),” said Cathcart-Smith, a retired teacher. “If I can think of any way to surprise him that will mean a lot to him, I’ll do it.”

The video messages were filmed on Feb. 4 by a crew of seven or eight volunteers who decorated the set with red and white netting and a light-up heart. Steve Bartlebaugh, ECMC’s executive director, said the volunteers also filmed and directed the messages.

“They were there, they were into it and they were excited when somebody was doing one,” Bartlebaugh said.

Evanston resident Patricia Simms, who was one of the volunteers, filmed two messages herself.

“We had a marvelous variety,” she said.

“We had two women who gave the most beautiful, most heartfelt thank-yous to their husbands. It was quite touching, and it was more than we had ever expected.”

Video valentines were first shown about ten years ago, and Bartlebaugh said he thought it would be fun to bring them back for ECMC’s 20th anniversary. Although the turnout was smaller than he had hoped – he wanted to bring in students from Northwestern and Evanston Township High School – Bartlebaugh said he’s happy with how it turned out.

“If I was basing it solely on the number of valentines we did, you’d say the event didn’t do very well,” he said. “But we got more e-mails from people who thought it was a good idea. A couple of the valentines were really heartwarming. It was a nice group accomplishment.”

Cathcart-Smith said her husband, Rick Smith, doesn’t know about the video message she recorded. She plans to watch it with him tonight when it airs on Channel 6 at 9 p.m.

“It’s a way to speak to somebody you love very much, and it’s a DVD they can keep forever that they can look at and know that they’ve got somebody standing beside them all the way,” she said.

“People said we weren’t going to make it together, and we proved them wrong and here we are. We made it work.”

Smith said Valentine’s Day has always been an important day for her. It was the day on which the couple got engaged in 1992. They try to outdo each other every year with trips and dinners, but they have never resorted to public TV.

“I can’t tell some of the things we’ve done, but last year we went to Arizona,” she said, laughing. “(I liked the video because) it’s unique. It’s definitely different from other things I’ve done.”

As for next year, Bartlebaugh said there is a 50-50 chance they will film the videos again. Maybe next time, he’ll listen to his own heart.

“If I know men, and personally speaking as one, Feb. 12 or 13 would have been a good day to videotape them,” he said. “In this case, you had to be prepared about ten days in advance. And that just may have been a little early.”

Reach Matt Presser at [email protected].