I got a message last week from Bonnie Upright, a fellow public relations professional, asking if I might be able to help with a “super secret, but way fun, event” that would be taking place at the Jacksonville Landing on Saturday. Aside from learning that the event was being sponsored by our chapter of the PRSA, the only other info the note contained was the directive to wear jeans, comfortable shoes and directions on how to get where we’d be meeting. Curiosity piqued (and with no concrete plans for Saturday morning), I said I was in and let her know I’d be bringing two more victims to add to the body count.
Photo Credit: Amy D'Alesio Boyle
Saturday morning dawned bright and it was with almost palpable excitement that I dragged my husband and a friend who was visiting us for the weekend to the Landing. An Earth Day celebration was in the works with a plethora of vendors’ tables lined up along the sidewalks leading to the courtyard. We wandered around for a bit, taking in the sites (and envying some of the arts and crafts projects going on in the kids corner of the celebration) before making our way to the Super Secret Spot (a venue that will be forever listed on FourSquare).
We mingled for a bit, waiting for the bulk of our fellow volunteers to arrive and once we had a pretty sizable group, Bonnie called everyone to order. The plan for the day? Jacksonville’s first flash mob. The purpose behind this #jaxflash? To get the NFPRSA involved in a fun event and to promote a new charitable organization called 1 Million Shirts, which is looking to collect and donate one million shirts to the people of Africa. The organization was created by Jason Sadler, founder of I Wear Your Shirt, and the website launched late last week.
For the next two hours, we got our boogie on as we learned a dance routine set to Ke$ha’s Tik Tok (which I’m still hearing in my head, btw). At the end of the two hours, we were split off into groups and set loose on the Jacksonville Landing with orders to converge on the courtyard once our music was cued. The next two minutes were a blur as we danced in front of all the Earth Day goers at the Landing, whose expressions varied between shock, amusement and excitement as they watched us shaking it in our Tebow shirts.
Photo Credit: Bonnie Upright
When the music stopped, we dispersed in every direction, slowly making our way back to the Super Secret Spot to celebrate (with a little help from the folks at the Landing who brought us libations). From there, the video’s been posted to YouTube, featured on First Coast News and tweeted about via the #jaxflash hashtag on Twitter.
