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Photo by Bob Pennell Ashland Middle School musicians serenade Kimo and Mim Siharath at Puck's Donuts with a "stringing telegram" Saturday. Sweet music for sweethearts `Stringing telegrams' raise money for American Heart Association By Susan Jay ASHLAND -- Playing on people's heartstrings is a sweet way to raise money for a heart-warming cause, Ashland Middle School orchestra students found Saturday. More than 50 middle-school musicians serenaded couples with special Valentine "stringing telegrams." The musical messages could be heard all over town, as the Ashland Middle Schoolers scrambled from home to home and business to business in small groups, performing love songs on their violin, viola, cello and bass. For $15, individuals placed orders for the unique telegrams to surprise their loved ones. For Mim Siharath, the romantic note came at work, where she was selling donuts. She didn't know what to think when six students with stringed instruments walked in to Puck's Donut Shop at 11:30 a.m. and started setting up their music stands. She looked at them bewildered, but her husband, Kimo, gave the kids an enthusiastic thumbs up with both hands. When Siharath was handed an envelope and a red heart balloon and told the following performance was from her husband for Valentines Day, she said, "Oh my God!" Her eyes went wide and wet. Then she grabbed her husband and gave him a big hug. With bows raised, the six musicians pulled on their strings for their first song, "You Are My Sunshine." Above the music, a light chorus could be heard as the students also sang the song. Next they serenaded the couple with "You Light Up My Life," without the singing. "It's so sweet," Siharath said, calling the music beautiful. She laughed and said, "it's not like him" to order something so nice. Kimo heard about the stringing telegram when the students placed an advertising poster on his shop's front door. He ordered one because, he said with a laugh, "I never do anything nice like she said." But in his next breath he said, "She works hard and she deserves it." The Laotian couple took over the donut shop a year ago from Kimo's uncle. They were high school sweethearts. They moved to Ashland from the Bay Area. After the performance, Kimo made the students' eyes light up with a big box of donuts. The student musicians were relieved after their first-performance jitters, and headed to Linda Vista Care Center. "This one went pretty well for our first one," said bass player Jeremy Thompson of the Puck Donut performance. Beforehand, he was nervous about singing. As he walked into the donut shop, he said, "Oh we're going to die." The students have been practicing for Valentine's Day since January and like the idea of small, intimate performances. "It's different from what we usually do, which is concerts," said violist Daniel Armitage, 13. The musicians were all uncertain about how the singing would come off, since they didn't learn until Friday about the request for accompanying vocals. "It's hard to sing and play without much practice," Armitage said. When you have to hold your chin down on your instrument, said viola player Bonnie Campos, "you can't sing very loud." Altogether, 54 students delivered 24 telegrams Saturday, including at the fire station and the library, said Gerry Pare, the middle school orchestra teacher and telegram coordinator. The funds raised will benefit the American Heart Association. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA