Max Camero
Staff Writer
March 5 started the hunt for the “Dancing Man.” The social media search started due to a post on UK based 4chan, an imageboard site for anonymous users, that included two pictures of a man dancing in a pub.
“Spotted this specimen trying to dance the other week. He stopped when he saw us laughing,” a 4chan user said.
When the man had become a victim of online harassment, Twitter user Emma Roid took a screenshot of the 4chan post, and shared it saying, “Twitter, can we find the man in this photo and tell him that he is beautiful and we love him?”
The following day, on March 6, after 10,000 tweets under the hashtag “FindDancingMan” spread across the internet, the man was located. The hashtag was created by Cassandra Fairbanks, who is also the creator of The Freethought Project, which sets out to encourage and grow creativity among people.
The Dancing Man was identified as a London resident named Sean. In Sean’s honor, a party in Los Angeles was organized for him by Fairbanks.
Famous musicians, such as Pharrell Williams, have pledged money to the cause, along with other celebrities like Ellie Goulding who have voiced their support of Sean.
While Lewis and Clark Community College has not had a major incident of bullying, it is an issue they would address with the student body if necessary:
“If there were instances that necessitated programming to educate students on the harm bullying does, we could invite speakers, show movies, have a panel discussion, contact professional theatre groups, etc. There are many options available to educate students about the effect bullying can have,” Jared Hennings, L&C student activities adviser said.
A campaign was created by Krista Vitt in order to hold a party for Sean on GoFundMe.com, a crowdfunding platform to raise money for various causes.
A $2,000 goal was set for the party, and 23 days after the campaign was started, more than $40,000 had been raised.
Vitt announced any money collected over the $2,000 goal would be donated to anti-bullying charities.
A donation of $10,000 was donated to Kidscape, a UK based charity that teaches young people, their families, and even professionals how to handle bullying. For more information on this charity visit http://www.kidscape.org.uk/.
“I think that anti-bullying charities are needed in today’s school environment, because bullying can destroy people’s lives. I think that the charities are a good way to help prevent, as well as inform people of the bullying happening at schools, and elsewhere,” Brennen Larson, Associate of Science major at L&C, said.
Visit http://bit.ly/1DkcCSn for a list of anti-bullying charities and associations to see how to get involved.
