SBHS students, community members dance for Diana
An idea that began as a class project has gone viral, drumming
up support for a local teen and highlighting the caring spirit of
her schoolmates and her community.
SBHS students, community members dance for Diana
An idea that began as a class project has gone viral, drumming up support for a local teen and highlighting the caring spirit of her schoolmates and her community.
“Dancing For Diana” is a five-minute, 38-second video posted on YouTube this week. In just a matter of days it received hundreds of hits as students, faculty and staff at San Benito High School shared the link via e-mail.
A group of students in the SBHS Leadership class were looking for a way to promote the upcoming Benefit Ball, an annual dance that this year will raise money for the family of freshman Diana Magana, who is battling cancer. Each year, the school selects a deserving local person or family to support with the proceeds from the dance, which will be held Feb. 5.
While fundraising at Safeway and filming their work “just to keep a record,” senior Jessica Romo got the idea to create a music video highlighting the effort and post it on the popular Web site.
“It started as a little idea just to be a video to show Leadership (class) students,” said Romo, who is also one of this year’s yearbook editors. “Asking people to dance got people talking about (the Benefit Ball) and the reaction was surprising.”
Romo and Ana Naranja, Raymond Andrade, Kyle Skinner and Liz Quezada – all students in Juan Robledo’s Leadership class – set out to promote the fundraiser 21st Century-style: on the Web.
Their video begins with the 1980s song “The Final Countdown” as the words “Seven high school students … on a mission … TO DANCE” scrolls to start the video. During the next few minutes, the intrepid filmmakers travel around Hollister, encouraging people to dance for Diana.
After watching SBHS’s freshman cheer squad dance, the video shows Safeway’s manager giving it his best in front of the camera as Lady Gaga’s song “Just Dance” plays over the video. From an employee of the store’s pharmacy to an adult brother and sister combination that really gets down, the video’s silly exterior never strays too far from its message – supporting a girl who really needs help.
From the aisles and Starbucks at Target to last Friday’s varsity basketball game to Jerry’s restaurant, the Baler videographers certainly were not shy about asking people to dance in front of the camera.
“We just drove around,” Romo said. “It was one of those things where the more places we went the more places people recommended we go.”
With their donation jug and video camera in hand, the students would identify themselves as being high school students who were trying to raise awareness about their effort while trying to raise money.
“A lot of people said ‘I don’t have money for a donation,’ and we’d say, ‘We’re not asking you for money; we’re asking you to dance to raise awareness for a video we’re making for our Benefit Ball recipient,'” Romo said. “I think every single person laughed and a lot of people did end up offering money – most did. If we got rejected when asking someone to dance, people gave us money instead.”
Employees of Target, Baskin-Robbins and Subway danced, and the Save Mart manager showed he’s been in a club or two as he got his groove on. Big 5, Juice it Up, KFC, and Mountain Mike’s Pizza employees got into the act as well, as the high school students held up their “Dancing for Diana” sign throughout.
Workers at AJ Sushi, Teezers, and even a Hollister policeman and local firefighters put pride aside to dance.
Asked if she was surprised by the willingness of locals to dance for strangers with a video camera, Romo said “not really,” because once they found out that it was for a good cause, their reluctance went out the window.
“I know people have a lot of good in them,” she said. “It was really motivating and inspiring to see all these people who didn’t know us become willing to dance for a video meant to benefit someone who has cancer.”
The video, which had hundreds of hits as of mid-week, reminds viewers that “Diana Magana needs our help” and posts the school’s phone number to encourage potential donors to call. There’s even talk of a Web site being set up to help spread the word about Magana’s plight and the effort to help her family.
I am glad that I wasn’t asked to dance, but more than that I am proud to work at a school and live in a community where caring and compassion are the rule, not the exception.
For more information on contributing to the Benefit Ball, call Juan Robledo at San Benito High School at 637-5831, ext. 252 or e-mail him [email protected]. To see the YouTube video, go to www.youtube.com/user/thisisyirok#p/a/u/0/HTY4q_8tB0M.
Adam Breen teaches newspaper and yearbook at San Benito High School and is a reporter for The Pinnacle. He is former editor of the Free Lance. He writes the Breen Blog online at http://thebreenblog.blogspot.com
