A flash mob surprised students in the Hornets Nest in last Wednesday afternoon. The mob started with participants standing up slowly for about 30 seconds until they ran around the cafeteria dancing, cheering and passing out flyers, said Benny Bowden, junior digital audio recording major.

The mob performed to Gabe & Benny’s hype song “Right Now” to promote the first football game of the season, which the Hornets won, 41-18, against the Fort Hays State Tigers Thursday at Welch Stadium.

“When you see flash mobs, you just can’t help but smile and get that uplifting feeling,” said Jason Bosch, director of Student Life and Learning Assessment and the group’s faculty adviser.

The group, known as 12th Man Flash Mob, has been working towards become a Recognized Student Organization for a little over a month now, said Caleb Critchfield, junior elementary education major and the organization’s president.

Critchfield said the group will undergo its second reading on Sept. 13 during the next Associated Student Government meeting.

“We haven’t really practiced at all simply because it’s not an official RSO and we’re kind of waiting to see what happens with that,” Critchfield said. “(But) we’ll probably start out bi-weekly.”

School spirit was almost non-existent at the community college from which Critchfield came to ESU, he said, so he wanted to find a way to increase student involvement and school spirit. Bosch said that Critchfield wants to “bring a lot of energy to the campus.”

“The whole point of the flash mob is a social activity for students if they’re feeling stressed about classes or something,” Critchfield said. “It’s just a way to bring students together. What we did in the cafeteria, that was more to get everybody involved, (and) get them to say, ‘Hey, this looks kind of cool.’”

The club is a way for students to get involved on campus if they don’t have a lot of time or if they just don’t know what other clubs they want to join yet, Bowden said.

“It’s just a group that’s for fun…you can get involved without having to put in a ton of extra time and extra effort,” Bowden said. “It’s always super fun to be in a flash mob…I’m in a fraternity here on campus, so I’m pretty busy and my time is pretty used up, and this is just a small thing that’s fun and doesn’t have to have a ton of commitment.”

The club has a Facebook group that is open to members – they currently have around 48 Critchfield – who can join before the first official practice. After the practice, those who did not show up will be removed from the group and the group will become private.

“Being a flash mob, you want people involved, but you also want to keep it kind of secret,” Bowden said.