Central station became a dance hall for a few minutes on Saturday as performers put on an impromptu show for passersby. The flash mob event was arranged by St John Ambulance Australia and involved 100 dancers who were there to promote the importance of first aid.
The dance began at 2pm and featured moves related to Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, complete with resuscitation dolls and ticker tape at the finale.
Chair of the St John Australian Youth Council Amy Winner said: “We want to raise the awareness of the importance of first aid in the community – this is an interesting and fun way of doing that.”
“We chose a flash mob as a new way to tell people what St John is about. It is something that our members can be actively involved in to promote the vibrancy of the organisation.”
Spectators Tony Lawrence and Melissa Banu-Lawrence said St John has got the right idea with the loud advertisement.
“With social media nowadays, this is the best way to get your message across. With youtube especially, anything that gets a few hits becomes viral almost immediately, so this type of communication is very effective, it’s different,” said Ms Banu-Lawrence.
Senior membership development coordinator Colin Dent was behind the logistics.
“The people watching were so surprised and excited. There were lots of cameras out and lots of people coming up to ask what it was all about,” he said.
The dance was choreographed by Paul Cordeiro to the music of Grum’s Heartbeats.
“The dance brought St. Johns to the forefront. It’s brought us all together, there were people from the ages of ten to seventy dancing, it was a lot of fun,” said performer Melanie Cole.
The Australian Youth Council provides guidance on issues that affect the organisation, particularly issues concerning the opinions and interests of young people.
“It should be a skill that everybody learns because you never know when you may have to perform it,” said participant Helen Banu.
“It’s moving into summer, therefore there are a lot of pool incidents in homes, which is why it is important to make sure people out there know how to use CPR, this dance is a good way to publicise that taking a course in CPR is a very important thing to do,” said Mr Lawrence.
By Georgia Fullerton
