Nothing says love like "Basket Case" by Green Day. Or, for the more traditional wooers, maybe a selection by Nat King Cole.
This Valentine's Day, the Association of Japanese American College Students is sending two traveling musicians to residence halls to deliver singing valentines.
"Some of the guys on my (executive board) sometimes serenade girls for fun," association president Michelle Wessely said. "We thought it would be cool, so we just went with it."
Wessely said last semester the group did singing telegrams in Mason, Abbot, Phillips and Snyder halls before final exams. Wessely said it was successful, with about 20 participants, so the group expanded - adding Shaw Hall and all of the dorms in West Circle to the rotation.
"Roses and flowers are kind of generic, but singing telegrams are unique," said Vickie Walilko, a pre-veterinary freshman who received a telegram last semester.
"I was excited, because I could hear him playing as he came down the hall - he just sat in my room and played," she said of Kevin LeBlanc, a French sophomore who delivered to her a song and personal note.
LeBlanc said he was recruited for the telegrams because he knows how to play guitar and association members overheard him playing in his room.
The responses he's received have been "funny," he said.
"I was singing a Dashboard Confessional song for a girl, and people kept coming down the hall up to the door and listening," he said, adding he can impersonate lead singer Chris Carrabba fairly well, so that might have drawn students.
Although students can choose from songs ranging from the Foo Fighters to Lauren Hill and Jason Mraz, LeBlanc said he draws the line at playing John Mayer songs.
All the money raised will go toward community service events, such as visits to local schools to teach origami.
Wessely said the activity is exciting because the association has become a more active group on campus in recent years.
"All of our activities are free, so we needed to find the funds to put them on," she said. "This was a fun way to do it."
For more information, call (517) 355-4871 or (517) 355-4811.
