While chocolate and flowers are common gifts to send to loved ones, getting serenaded by singers and cupids may seem a bit more unusual. For the past five years the Dreyfoos chapter of the organization A Prom to Remember has normalized singing telegrams on Valentine’s Day for students and teachers.

“A Prom to Remember is a national organization that aims to give pediatric cancer patients an unforgettable prom,” A Prom to Remember co-president and dance senior Olivia Izenwasser said. “All of the money that A Prom to Remember: Operation Dreyfoos raises is donated to the organization at the end of the year to help with the prom expenses.”

Singing telegrams is one of the club’s annual fundraisers. The telegrams are sold for $5 and they include chocolate, carnations, cupids, and singers.

“I think that anyone who received a singing telegram this year was grateful that their friends were thinking of them,” A Prom to Remember co-president and dance junior Merrill Carr said. “It was great to see their faces light up when they realized that their friends bought the telegrams for them.”

One hundred and six singing telegrams were sold this year and they were delivered on Jan. 12 during fourth hour. Many students and teachers were pleasantly surprised.

“My teacher was talking about a class assignment and we heard singing from the door,” communications freshman Lindsay Spruce said. “We all turned around and four guys were singing and another couple of guys were dressed up in all white with flower headbands, and they called out my name and ran over to me and handed me a chocolate bar.”

Spruce enjoyed receiving the telegram, and found the experience even funnier when a lot of her classmates were not aware of this Dreyfoos tradition.

“When it was happening I was laughing the whole time because it was really funny, especially since some people didn’t know what it was,” Spruce said. “One person thought I was getting asked to prom.”

The fundraiser brought in $530 and all of the money will be directly donated to A Prom to Remember. Izenwasser and Carr both plan on continuing singing telegrams for many years to come.

“I hope that everyone who received a telegram was partially embarrassed and surprised,” Izenwasser said. “It is always a successful event that students look forward to each year.”