If you’re lucky enough to have a Valentine this year, you could celebrate privately like a normal couple, or you could give all of us single people something to enjoy and invest in a Singing Valentine. That way, we all benefit from a ten minute distraction from class, or a ten minute distraction from how lonely our lives are. The Dreamers of Phi Mu Alpha are the kings of mortifying peoples’ loved ones for a fee.

For 25 years this a capella group has been showing up in peoples’ classrooms, at their workplaces, at their homes, to serenade them in the name of love. Their most popular song? This year it was Stand By Me (awwww). Last year, was Brown Eyed Girl, which makes me wonder, how many brown eyed girls are there on campus?

The Dreamers charge $10 for on-campus performances and $15 for off-campus. These rates increase by $5 for performances on Valentine’s Day. A small price to pay for awkward memories that will last a lifetime. Singing Valentines are Phi Mu Alpha’s biggest fundraiser of the year, and last year they raised about $1200. They’re still willing to schedule, all you have to do is e-mail [email protected].

Though most people react with the classic gasp and blush, there have been some crazier reactions. Once, a girl they serenaded reacted with complete terror. As it turns out, the boy who requested the Singing Valentine was not her boyfriend but somebody she was convinced was stalking her.

The Dreamers were set to perform all yesterday. They did have one cancellation, however, due to a recent break up. Sometimes love hurts. Any Valentines scheduled for after 2:30 p.m. will be rescheduled for next week. Not even Winter Storm Pax can silence their song.

I met up with the Dreamers at 8:30 a.m yesterday morning to watch a couple of their performances. They started out by interrupting a class in Reber to serenade Jesse Rathod, who handled the whole thing like a champ. In fact, he seemed fairly unfazed. Good thing we caught the whole thing on video: