Rutgers junior’s Dance Marathon video goes viral and raises over $1000
It got over 24,000 upvotes on Reddit
These days, getting your fifteen minutes of fame usually means you did something hilarious on social media or embarrassed yourself in a spectacular fashion. Anthony Mollica, a junior studying journalism, is experiencing the magical powers of the internet with a video his friend made of him dancing last year.
Video by Ben Peraria
“My friends and I were filming a TV show for RU-tv. I was hosting the show in the studio and I was waiting for the director in the control room, Ben Peraria, to hit record, so I was dancing. Little did I know he was recording already,” Mollica told The Tab. “He then took the clip and made this video out of it. He posted it on Facebook last year and it got some love from family and friends.”
Recently, Mollica’s friends were going through his Facebook and resurfaced the video by liking and commenting on it. Since he is participating in Rutgers’ Dance Marathon this year, Mollica decided to put the video to good use by reposting it and attaching his DM donation link to it. However, he didn’t realize it would be so popular.
“I don’t know why it went viral. None of my friends or I put the video on YouTube or Reddit. We still don’t know who did it. I woke up Wednesday morning to donations from random people. Before it went viral I had about 585 in donations and by the end of the day on Wednesday, I was at over 1100,” Mollica said.
Since the video was posted to Reddit, it has accumulated 24,579 upvotes and 1180 comments. Needless to say, some of the comments are hilarious, likening Mollica’s sassy moves to Shakira.
While he thinks it’s awesome that the video garnered so much attention, he wishes the person who posted it on YouTube would give his friend Peraria the rights to the video. Peraria put the video together in the first place, and the person who reposted it to YouTube has monetized it after receiving over 300,000 views without crediting him. “I am a little uneasy about the whole situation because of that,” Mollica noted.
Nevertheless, donations continue to pour into his DM page. At $1179, Mollica has exceeded his initial goal to raise $1000 and now hopes to raise $5000.
“It’s cool that it went viral and I am so grateful that people donated to this amazing cause,” he said.