A disagreement over a flash mob has led to the leader of last year's top-fundraising AIDS Walk team to step down from the event.
In 2010, Randy Ross' team “The Real Biatches of Orange County,” raised more than $18,000 for the AIDS Walk, which is Hope and Help Center's 2nd largest annual fundraiser. Hope and Help provides HIV/AIDS services to those infected and affected in the Central Florida area.
On Jan. 29, Ross teamed up with former Orange County Commissioner Linda Stewart and other community leaders to organize an organized dance routine promoting tourism at the Mall of Millenia. Ross approached Hope and Help Development Director Maggie King with the idea to do a second “flash mob” at the AIDS Walk event, boasting a corporate sponsor who would make a donation to the organization.
“I begged him not to take the attention off of AIDS and the reason everyone is there,” King said. “If [he] really wanted to help Hope and Help, [he'd] do the flash mob a week before and use it as a PSA for the AIDS Walk.”
King said the meeting was very positive but “where it went from there I don't know.”
Ross said he “didn't expect that they weren't going to embrace [the flash mob idea].”
He admitted that he could see how the organized dance could potentially upstage the walk, but thought the trade-off in bringing 1,000 people”the number Ross said he expected to participate in the flash mob”would offset that. He said he also planned to ask each participant to make a $5 minimum donation to Hope and Help.
“We decided to step away,” he said. “Obviously, fundraising in our community is easier than what I think it is. I'm not upset but I'm disappointed. We're still doing a flash mob, just not as an [AIDS Walk] team.”
Stewart said they readily agreed to move the dance performance.
“If [Hope and Help feels] uncomfortable, then that's what the issue is and I don't want to interfere with what they're trying to do,” Stewart said.
Both Ross and Stewart confirmed there was a corporate sponsor involved, but they both declined to discuss who it is. They also declined to say how much money was on the table because they said a deal is still in the works with another non-profit organization, and leaking details might jeopardize the new agreement. Ross said he's “disappointed” that Hope and Help turned down the corporate donation.
“I guarantee you Hope and Help is not saying to Disney [and] Universal that they can't bring 500 people,” Ross said. “They're saying it to the team leader who helped bring the largest amount of money ever to the AIDS Walk. I have to think it's personal. I hope that no other team leader is being told “Don't bring too many people, don't try to have a lot of spirit and entertain the people around you.'”
King denies that the number of walkers was discussed.
“By the way, his team of 1,000 walkers wasn't even a mention,” she said. “Anybody can come and walk. The more the merrier.”
She added that there are both space and liability concerns.
“We have people there, we have pets there, it's just not the place,” King said. “The AIDS Walk is all about awareness, not about a flash mob. It's about raising money and awareness about AIDS and that's the agency's standpoint.”
Ross has decided not to participate in the AIDS Walk at all this year.
“It's clear Hope and Help has a lot of volunteers helping them,” he said. “At this point, I think it would be a distraction to create a team.”
King called rumors that Ross was asked not to participate at all “ridiculous.”
