You may have seen it online, or on TV.
One of the state’s largest flash mobs happened at Windward Mall, but work on the event began months ago and the inspiration long before that as students, performing arts groups and athletic classes started learning choreography gearing up for the flash mob.
"I think for our part we really want to get that educational component out of why we are doing it," said flash mob coordinator Gayla Traylor.
The motivation behind the surprise performance came from Kamehameha School’s Kapalama Campus where a pair of teachers chose to honor their former co-worker Arletta Kealoha Soon who passed away three years ago from breast cancer.
"It especially touches me because the year that she died I was deployed," said Mara Bacon-Chang.
Kealoha wasn’t the only teacher on campus battling cancer. These five women are all breast cancer survivors who also teach at Kamehameha Schools.
"And the same day I found out I had cancer my husband also found he had cancer," said breast cancer suvivor Georgie Chock.
"Cancer in the beginning was a curse, I thought I was going to die but as you go through the motion and you take your step its really a gift," said Flo Mukai, also a survivor.
"I thank everyday for the gifts everyday brings," said breast cancer survivor Kathy Chock.
Almost all say they were caught off-guard by the diagnosis.
"I didn’t know that my family had a history of cancer," said survivor Kaylia Iona.
But Bobbie Perry, a national champion volleyball player who played in the 1968 Olympic Games, has battled Hodgkin’s disease and breast cancer twice.
"I did whatever I needed to do and I was back playing volleyball again," she says."Its like wow. You have a much greater appreciation of everything that happens."
"It’s a gift because you find more meaning in life," Mukai says.
When students started learning the choreography to the flash mob routine these women realized the kids were learning life lessons they have lived.
"I truly believe that they understand that they are celebrating life and there is life after cancer and you need to celebrate it everyday," Kaylia says.
Tomorrow Olena shows us what it took to get more than 300 people of all ages from across the island in on the routine.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
