Students Sell Valentine's Gifts

Money can't buy you love, but this week, it can buy Harvard students a variety of flowers and singing telegrams.

Harvard music groups will indulge their cupidity this Valentine's Day weekend, selling musical messages to students looking for offbeat ways to express their devotion.

"We're going to capitalize on the holiday," said practical-minded Michael Frusztajer '89 of the a capella Krokodiloes.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) is selling musical valentines, accepting requests for different instrumental serenades.

The orchestra has received orders for crashing cymbals, female french horn players, and a string quartet, as well as more common requests, according to Melissa Feliciano '90, who is organizing the project.

Orders for these musical valentines stopped last night, because the orchestra could not handle many more deliveries, according to Feliciano. The orchestra made more than $80 in each house, selling chocolates and flowers with their music.

HRO's biggest order was from the Harvard Model Congress, which ordered 65 carnations to be sent to staff members.

The Kuumba Singers, an a capella singing group with a Valentine's Day repertoire of 47 popular love songs, is selling singing telegrams for $3.50 each, which they will deliver with a carnation. If the price of a song is too steep, the singers will deliver a carnation alone for $1.50.

The Krokodiloes will join the Radcliffe Pitches and the Princeton Tigerlilies to sing love songs to a Saturday night audience in Sanders Theater.

Although Harvard's musicians are active, the houses aren't bringing flowers anymore. Since most of them are in the middle of elections, the house committees did not Valentine's Day affairs.

Lowell House is a notable exception. Like the other houses, it is sponsoring an "infidelity dance," featuring Christian and the Infidels. Its residents are also delivering carnations and producing a personals paper which will have more than 100 ads and messages.

Other Houses are planning dances and parties, but not delivery services.