A secret was hidden from all the students of Longwood University, planned for weeks and only revealed to those lucky, unsuspecting individu als who happened to be at just the right location at just the right time.
While March of Dimes is not un known to the public, Kelsie Critten don, head of March of Dimes at Long wood University, and Chantal Gamble, president of the Longwood Company of Belly Dance, decided to help the stu dent body become more aware and ex cited for the upcoming Walk for Babies on April 1.
The Belly Dance Company, along with volunteers, performed the electric slide dance to the song "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice on March 1 around 5:30 p.m. the middle of Dorrill Dining Hall while wearing purple March of Dimes T-shirts.
President Patrick Finnegan attended the event and took off his dress shirt and tie to reveal a March of Dimes shirt underneath, putting on sunglasses to dance the electric slide alongside the students.
"You know all of us start out as ba bies," said Finnegan, "but some babies have to fight harder to survive because of premature birth or birth defects. The March of Dimes fights around the world for healthier, stronger babies."
Finnegan spoke of his own experi ences with the cause, describibg his granddaughter who, while currently "a healthy teenager about to finish the eighth grade," was born prematurely at three pounds and eight ounces.
Finnegan said, "I believe in this cause very much. I hope you'll get involved and help our students or get involved in the March of Dimes and for the March of Babies that's going to take place Sunday, April 1 here in Farm ville."
A member of the Belly Dance Compa ny and a participant of the flash mob, Tiffany Riggins said the dance compa ny spent a few weeks preparing for the event by learning the electric slide for the first 10 to 15 minutes of each prac tice. "The Wednesday before the event, we invited the people who weren't a part of Belly Dance club to come in and practice with us."
Riggins said the reason for the choice of dancing the electric slide to "Ice Ice Baby" was because "it was a dance that almost everybody knew and ... it was easier to teach other people if they wanted to learn and it also went with the song pretty well."
"I think it's a worthy cause to donate to just because helping humanity is al ways a worthy thing to do and spend your time working on," said Riggins, later stating, "It was a lot of fun once we started doing it. I loved the fact that the people got up and joined in, that it wasn't just the Belly Dance club doing it."
Recorded on a video after the event and posted on Youtube by Longwood student George Werbacher, Crittendon said for people to participate in one of Longwood's "Walk for Babies teams at www.marchfordimes.org by selecting the "Join a team" option and choosing the Longwood University link.
"Get involved. Help them out. Stop by the table on the way out," said Finnegan.
The March of Dimes is a nonprofit or ganization determined to improve the health of children born prematurely or with birth defects through education to the public, advocacy and commu nity programs.
