HIGH POINT, N.C. — Imagine this: your phone rings, you answer and on the other end, a choir is singing love songs on Valentines Day. For the last six years, the choral students at Southwest Guilford High School have been the voices on the other end of that call.
Catherine Butler brought the telephone tradition over when she started teaching at the high school. It's a way for the program to raise money for things like instrument tuning, paying for field trips and registration fees and even helping the group buy sheet music. The singing Valentines have become very popular.
"We have multiple phones going throughout the school," Butler said. "I take any office that’s available and squish 12 kids in there and give them a stack of order forms and they start making calls. So it’s great that the kids are independent enough that they don’t need an adult standing there telling them exactly what to do that they’re awesome kids who work hard and it’s just one day – give me one day and we’ll get them all done."
Last year, they made more than 300 calls and they're on target to do it again this year.
"We are booked – they’re rolling in as we speak – every day a kid brings me a stack from mom and dad’s office and we sell them at lunch and teachers think it’s an easy and great way to send love to their parent or their child it’s just a special someone in their life."
Butler says the kids have fun making people's day.
"We get all kinds of reactions. People who we’ve had grandmas cry, we’ve had people say, 'uh thanks?' So all kinds of reactions and I think that’s the most fun."
Each call is $5 and you can choose from six songs. Butler says the most popular selection is, "I Just Called To Say I Love You," by Stevie Wonder.