Each year, the Silvertones sing to students all around the school in order to raise money for their Italy trip in March. They prepare acapella arrangements of popular songs, like Britney Spears’s “Toxic”, Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time”, and the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way,” which are then sung for recipients.
“We then go into classrooms and interrupt the class, crowd around a person, and sing to them,” senior Katie Foca said. “It’s like a singing telegram, but Singing Valentines.”
The Silvertones spend months preparing for Valentine’s Day, and sell during all lunches the week before.
“It’s a fun little thing that the Silvetones do, it’s all student-led, we spend a few months preparing the songs and then during lunches we sell,” sophomore Eli Graves said.
In addition to the short ensemble pieces, chorus members performed small Valentine’s Day-themed gestures like drawing hearts and swaying on chairs.
“My colleagues like to go on their [recipients’] Chromebook and search up hearts and like to draw hearts on their paper and notes,” sophomore Ryan Markey said.
Singing Valentines are a way for students to show love and support for their friends on Valentine’s Day.
“They can buy a Singing Valentine for their friends and we go and sing to their friends,” Markey said.
The Silvertones tradition has always brought joy to the chorus members.
“It’s so fun to see people absolutely mortified, it’s the best part, one guy who we sang to looked like he was about to start crying,” Graves said.
According to members of the Silvertones who have done Singing Valentines before, the system was more organized this year than it had been in past years.
“The sheets of names were broken into classrooms and by block,” Foca said. “We weren’t disrupting class as much, we would go to multiple people simultaneously in one class.”
Other Silvertones agreed that the new system helped them stay organized.
“This year was a lot less stressful, and was less rushed around,” Markey said.
For other chorus members, the tradition had been easier to execute than it was before due to a lower number of students who were given a Valentine.
“There were a lot more people we had to sing to last year, so this year was easier,” Graves said.
The Silvertones take great joy in interacting with their student body.
“It’s fun to embarrass people, in a nice way, and I like to see their reactions,” Markey said. “It’s a really fun experience, and I’m glad our school offers it.”
