For decades, Valentine’s Day has been closely associated with chocolates, flowers, stuffed animals, heart-warming letters, and love songs. The latter provides a unique way for people to express their love for each other. Whether through romantic lyrics or intimate melodies, music plays a crucial role in everyone’s Valentine’s Day. 

  Thankfully, the Cantanti Class – The jazz choir class – annual fundraiser makes it convenient for The Village School’s Vikings to send love songs to each other.  Between seven to eight participants learn around 12 songs which kids and parents can choose from. A perfect mix of oldies like “So This Is Love” By Ilene Woods and Mike Douglas and contemporary love songs like “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eilish make a catalog full of options for all different tastes.

Those aren’t the only songs they provide, they also include a number of other songs to choose from: Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer, Bird of a Feather by Billie Eilish, You are my Sunshine by Jimmie Davis, Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel (cover by Bruno Mars), I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder, When I Found You by Stephen Sanchez & Em Beihold, and Linger by the Cranberries. The diversity in these choices makes it easier to align a gift with the relationship the givers have with the receiver. It could be a song about love, friendship, or family. 

This combines the emotion of the music, and the surprise. It is a treat to hear and see. It brings joy to both the sender and receiver. “A lot of hard work was put into the singing valentines, all of the girls did a really good job of putting in the work.”, said Kelsey Depree the organiser and a fine arts teacher at The Village High School. It shows the quality and work put into it, as well as the sender’s appreciation we have seen good reviews left and right from the receivers of this sweet gift. “It was a great way to kind of do something for somebody else, and they sounded so absolutely incredible. As well as that it was cheap, so it was an easy and great way to make people feel good.” Said Ms. Proske, one of the major buyers and the principle of The Village Middle School

Although there is high excitement in the community for this annual event, the singing grams also contribute a lot to the fine arts committee. Having this be the only fundraiser the committee holds each year means their only funding comes from the kindness and love in the community. It’s a sweet way to give and receive in the community just for the sake of being a good citizen. The Village School is always trying to find ways to help different departments and this is a great way to contribute to that.

Overall, this event and fundraiser has been used to spread kindness within the community. I think this fundraiser is a great way for Vikings to build stronger relationships with each other. I would give it a 9/10 because overall it’s a very timeless and selfless activity that many have put a lot of hard work into. The main difficulty I see with the event is that there were a few orders they had to follow through on Monday the week after but it being only around 5 orders really isn’t a big problem. This is a great present if you are looking for what to buy next Valentine’s Day!