Food court flash mob spreads message of diabetes awareness
FARGO – Shoppers getting a bite in the West Acres food court Saturday afternoon got a healthy earful.By: John Lamb, INFORUM
- Dancers form a flash mob
- Joanna Nysetvold
FARGO – Shoppers getting a bite in the West Acres food court Saturday afternoon got a healthy earful.
About 50 dancers invaded the dining area for a flash mob musical production, hoping the dancing outburst would draw attention to diabetes.
Typically flash mobs – unannounced gatherings with a theme or a particular intended action – aren’t announced, but organizers sent out a news release to attract the media.
At 2:58 p.m., the young adults, many from the Concordia College Dance Team or Concordia nursing program, took off jackets and sweatshirts to reveal matching red “Stop Diabetes” T-shirts and met in the middle of the food court. The group danced in unison to “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO, led by local choreographer Patrick Kasper.
The timing of the event to begin at 2:58 was significant as 25.8 million Americans have diabetes.
Stephanie Chimeziri, director of the local chapter of the American Diabetes Association says the goal of the event was to raise awareness not only for the disease but also for the 2011 Fargo Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes on Oct. 15 at Scheels Arena.
Chimeziri said that if current trends continue, one in every three children will develop diabetes. Already 50,000 North Dakotans have the disease and one out of every four people has pre-diabetes. The news release stated that 233,619 people will die of the disease this year.
“I’d hope by the end of the day a lot of people would have better awareness of diabetes in our community,” Chimeziri said after the event, as the dancers dispersed.
“It was kind of cool,” said Pam Christensen, who was drawn to the food court by the music and caught part of the short program.
The idea for such a public appearance came up two weeks ago. The group had one rehearsal with only about half the dancers showing up.
“It went pretty good,” said Emily Stunek one of the dancers.
The captain of Team Red in the Walk to Stop Diabetes, Stunek has been fighting the disease for 15 years, since she discovered she had it at age 7.
“Having this support behind you, knowing people care so passionately about this, makes living with the disease a lot easier,” she said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter John Lamb at (701) 241-5533
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