It’s hard to be original when it comes to Valentine’s Day. It’s a holiday that’s been around for years and every year it seems to get harder and harder to be original with your V-day gifts.

Luckily Phi Mu Alpha has you covered. It’s that special time of the year when lucky guys and gals get serenaded in the middle of their crowded lecture halls. There is nothing better then seeing the faces of pure surprise of those who receive these singing valentines.

Phi Mu Alpha is a UM social fraternity that belongs to the Frost School of Music and is well known for its performing capabilities. Every year they sell and preform singing valentines. They set up a booth in the breezeway a week or so before they begin the singing valentines and people can  purchase a $5 serenade for their special someone. Today at 8 am marked the official start of the singing valentines.

“The singing valentines have been a tradition within our fraternity for a long time,” commented Vice President Jake Pressman.  “When you purchase a singing valentine, we ask for the name of the person, the classroom and the time. We literally will go to that class and tell the professor that we are here to do a singing valentine and we ask politely if it is okay if we sing to them. It’s just a really fun way to make people happy during Valentine’s week and, also, it is the biggest fundraiser our chapter has.”

“Our entire mission is to spread the power of music across America,” said Pressman. “We try to do philanthropy toward that mission statement, we go to people in not so great circumstances like at the Ronald McDonald House and local hospitals and we sing to them with either standard repertoire music or any solo acts we have.”

 The Mills Music Mission, named after Phi Alpha Mu’s founder Ossian E. Mills, is one of the fraternity’s main philanthropies. As part of the Mills Music Mission, members of the fraternity sing for those in less fortunate situations. The fraternity has also been involved with Feeding South Florida, a food drive dedicated to those in need in South Florida.

Due to the fact that Phi Alpha Mu is part of the Frost School of Music, many of its recruits come from the music school. But many of its members are not music students.

“We have a recruitment process that starts three weeks into every semester,” said Pressman. “The Frost School of Music’s Band of the Hour is our usual recruitment pool, but you don’t have to be a music major to be in the fraternity. You don’t even need to play an instrument; you just need to have a love for music.”

For more information visit Phi Alpha Mu’s website http://betataupma.org/.

Kamila Knaudt is a sophomore from California studying journalism with a minor in modern languages. If she is not watching Criminal Minds you can find her outside doing something adventurous. Kami’s dream is to one day eat her way around the globe.

words_kamila knaudt. photos_evelyn choi.