After Witnessing Cruelty Against Overweight Man, LA Group And Stars Offer To Throw Him A Dance Party
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The video showed an overweight man dancing exuberantly -- until he's made fun of by a group of kids.
One of those kids wrote: "Spotted this specimen trying to dance the other week. He stopped when he saw us laughing."
The sad look on the man's face said it all. But that sad look upon his face captivated two women in Los Angeles and some big named stars -- among them Pharrell Williams and Moby -- who have offered to throw the man his own dance party.
The LA Coliseum, no small venue, is reportedly even offering to host.
KCAL9's Bobby Kaple on Saturday went in search of the Good Samaritans who are lifting a large man's spirits in a big way.
Cassandra Fairbanks --on Twitter as @CassandraRules -- is an author and activist. She said she was heartbroken when she saw people fat-shaming the man.
Her hashtag, #finddancingman, started trending almost immediately. She and friend Hope Leigh (@HopeLeighMusic) put their heads togather and decided to find the dancing man and make him feel special.
"If I see something wrong, then I try and fix it," Fairbanks told Kaple.
A GoFundMe account -- to track the man down and offer to fly him to L.A. (Sean lives in London) is at $32,000 and climbing. Organizers of that page say any money that doesn't go do the dance party will go to an anti-bullying campaign.
Fairbanks told Kaple she and her group are promising a night Sean will not forget. "We will make it awesome," she added.
But even she acknowledges to being surprised by the world reaction for Sean.
"I put it on Twitter expecting a couple of tweets. I didn't expect this," Fairbanks says.
For her part, Leigh said Sean is grinning from ear to ear at the invite to dance from 2,000 women.
"I think that was a pretty sweet invitation for him," Leigh said.
"He said he hasn't stopped smiling for the last 24 hours," said Fairbanks, "he is overwhelmed by the outpouring. The kindness from everybody across the world has been unbelievable."
The little private party might have to become a large public one -- the date to be determined.
The ladies who organized the dance party are also taken aback by how their little idea has sparked a movement.
"When we started to see celebrities and activists and media outlets we respect, sharing the story, that's when it became very surreal," says Leigh.
Surreal and -- get ready to dance!
"I already thought it was going to be an amazing party, and now it's snowballing bigger than any of us could have imagined," Fairbanks said.
