Singing Telegrams by: Sam Fremin

Every Valentine’s Day our school hosts a singing telegram fundraiser for the end-of-year senior
trip. Kids of all ages across the school population organize themselves into groups, audition for
the senior class government and sponsor, and then spend Valentine’s Day popping in and out of
classes singing to whoever had messages purchased for them. Last year four of my friends had
set the school upside down with their telegram team, “No Hard Feelings.” Donned in pink tank
tops and cut off jean shorts, they sang assorted Beyoncé and boy bands songs. Taking it a step
further, they created choreography and assigned each other voice parts. It was a whole
production. Unsurprisingly, they sold a majority of the available telegrams. As soon as they
walked into a classroom to perform, you could feel the odd swagger they exuded. Little did I
know how much work went into creating the spectacle they put on.

This year, since two of the original members graduated, I was chosen to fill one of the empty
slots and I couldn’t have been more excited. Based on their financial success last year, it was all
but guaranteed No Hard Feelings would be accepted into the fundraiser again. Keeping this in
mind, we went all out with our preparation for auditions, but also the performance day itself. The
senior class sponsor reached out to us at one point to inform us just how excited he was for our
set this year. His expression of excitement rubbed off on us in the form of confidence. We
jumped right into our planning meetings and rehearsals. Our song list (“Any Kind of Guy” by
Big Time Rush, “Whatcha Say” by Jason Derulo, “Toxic” by Britney Spears, and “Love on Top”
by Beyoncé) was the first order of business. Together we discussed and debated what would
generate the most buzz, but would also be possible for us to perform well. Once we had the
pieces picked out, we delegated the remaining jobs amongst ourselves. Although we had songs
selected, we still needed to come up with choreography, costumes, voice parts, advertisements,
and instrumentals to sing over.

Self policed deadlines were put in place for when specific aspects of our jobs needed to be
accomplished. The members working on voice parts and instrumentals worked together to find
the right key and harmonies (I don’t really understand choral lingo, so I may have just
completely butchered what they were doing, but the point is they were working together on their
respective jobs). Choreography would be ready in pieces. Basically, every song would be done
by a certain point. I was one half of our costume team. We planned out what everyone would be
wearing and then spent a Saturday driving to numerous thrift stores to find affordable versions of
our ideas.

Rehearsing before school every Monday and Friday for an hour or so, we rocked our audition
and were told we were a lock for the fundraiser. The night before Valentine’s Day, the fundraiser
sponsor sent us a detailed schedule of each of the sixty-two classes we’d have to hit throughout
the day. It was going to be tight for us to reach everyone and it was going to be tiring, but we
were into it. This is what we’d been looking forward to for months.

I showed up the next morning in our designated rest area, dressed in a giant fur coat and joggers
with playing card designs on them. Our team discussed what our plan was going to be over the
course of the day to conserve our voices, but still remain fun to watch. As soon as the first bell
rang, we embarked on our sweaty journey to our sixty second performance.