While some of you will be out scrambling for flowers, cards or some other stand-in for your affection on Saturday, a new national non-profit group with ties to Maine is asking you to take a minute for them.

On Valentine's Day Do 1 Thing is asking people around the country to break off from their regularly scheduled programming and think about helping the nation's homeless teenage population.

So, yeah, drop the whole chocolates and naughty underwear bit for a minute.

Do 1 Thing is the brainchild of photographers and other journalists from around the country, trying to bring attention to a problem that sometimes gets little or no recognition. On Feb. 14, the project is kicking off as photographers around the country spread out to document the young people living just outside the margins, sometimes right in broad daylight. As the people behind Do 1 Thing point out, homelessness for young people can take many forms; it doesn't just mean living on the streets, but sometimes couch-surfing from one friend's place to another.

Unlike the adult homeless population, teens can have a different set of needs, including expanded medical and education services.

Around Maine, photographers, including students from The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies will be taking photos of homeless youth and giving the "A Day in the Life" treatment to people who are sometimes referred to as "falling in between the cracks."

Alexandra Daley-Clark, director of photographer relations (or photographer wrangler as she says), says the idea was for people to use whatever resources and skills they have, writing, shooting photography or video, to draw people's attention to the issue of teen homelessness.

Daley-Clark is a photographer with years of experience working for different publications, including Newsweek. She now lives in Saco and has her own studio, working on commercial photography as well as weddings and other events.

The Valentine's Day push serves two purposes, documenting the issue of poverty and homelessness and using the results of that to get people motivated to act, she said. So even if you're not a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, you can find a way to Do 1 Thing in your area, which can be something as easy as donating slightly used clothes, toiletries or non-perishable food to shelters and other aid groups.

Daley-Clark says it is just the beginning, as the Do 1 Thing project will continue to try and give a voice and face to the young homeless. While it may not seem like a lot, it can start to add up if enough people get involved.

Looking for ways to help, you can contact some of these agencies around Maine or find a shelter near you.

Portland: The Preble Street Resource Center

York County: Caring Unlimited

Franklin, Oxford and Androscoggin counties: Community Concepts

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