When Amy Wagner was told she had stage 3C ovarian cancer, the news sent shock waves throughout her family. Despite the terminal diagnosis, Wagner remained incredibly positive, going by her motto: Dum vivimus vivamus or, “While we live, let us live.”
In the spirit of making the most of her days, Wagner’s daughter, Lauren Keppel, decided to surprise her mother by organizing a flash mob to show her how much she’s loved. The entire routine and Wagner’s reaction can be seen below. As the description with the video reads, “Amy has been an indelible force in the lives of so many people; as we all bare witness to her pain, I wanted to find a way to remind her how surrounded she is by support. ”
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As Today.com reports, when Keppel sent out an email to her friends and family soliciting dancers, replies came pouring in. A total of 50 people — from Utah, to Indiana, to California — agreed to travel to Wheaton, Illinois on May 10 (the day before her Wagner’s birthday) to surprise her with a choreographed dance to “The Best of My Love” by the Emotions.
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The incredible gesture left Wagner speechless. “It is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me,” she told Today. “I just love them all so much. I am really, really blessed.”
How did they pull it off? After Keppel and a friend sent each person a video of the routine, each dancer was responsible for practicing the dance at home.
The effort was all worth it, as Keppel said, “The impact she has had on the people in her life is tremendous and I wanted to be able to show her that in a cumulative, grander way.”
Tag: flash mob
Watch the One Incredible Spontaneous Act That Helped a Colorado Community in Need
A song can do a lot more than just raise spirits; it can raise cash too. The suburban community of Longmont in Northern Colorado is still recovering from devastating floods that swept through in September. But some much-needed help is now on the way, thanks to the musical creativity of OUR Center, an area nonprofit that provides emergency services to local residents in need. Organizers from the center, along with members of the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, wanted to try something different to solicit donations for its ongoing relief efforts. So, on a sunny day in December, the group staged a surprise flash mob in a local grocery store, Lucky’s Market, with participants all singing “Help” by the Beatles. The sing-along included the church choir, singers from the Rocky Mountain Center for Music Arts and even the Silver Creek High School drum line. “It was just a creative way to help [the OUR Center] reach new donors and build awareness and gather what they really need — cash,” Phil Caragol, one of the flash mob organizers, told the Longmont Times-Call. Local filmmaker Payton Pearson was on hand to capture the whole thing on video, which you can watch above. So far, the singing spectacle seems to have worked wonders. The OUR Center reports that $10,000 in donations can be traced directly to the video, while more than $30,000 has been donated in less than a month — a drastic increase from the same time last year. That’s a whole lot of “help” for a community that needs it.
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