WASHINGTON – Nearly 100 people, including some former Redskins players and Ravens cheerleaders, turned out for the first flash mob on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial last week — and it was all for a good cause.
Organizer James Roberts’ older brother was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma last year, “I decided at that time I couldn’t just sit by and watch him go through the fight. I wanted to join in on the fight,” he says.
Roberts’ brother is now cancer-free but the fight continues for millions of families across the country.
“Leukemia and lymphoma, combined, are the No. 1 reasons that kids under the age of 20 die. There’s no other cause or disease that kills more,” Roberts says.
Roberts hopes the video goes viral and helps to raise $150,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by Saturday night, June 14.
The Gaithersburg resident says he’s done other fundraising events before, like shaving his head during a Cut-a-Thon, but this was the first time he participated in a flash mob.
“I thought, how can I reach a huge audience and hopefully get a lot of people to donate just a little bit of money?” Roberts says.
His wife, Carrie, a former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader, helped to choreograph the flash mob. Between the two of them, they were able to get former Redskins players Fred Smoot and Shawn Springs and Ravens cheerleaders to dance as well.
“(Smoot and Springs) were on board from the get-go