Dance Break!
— Amber Worthy (@AWorthyNews) April 2, 2018
2 minutes that will brighten your day.@ChattanoogaPD officers were invited to an Easter Egg Hunt in East Lake Courts and this happened. @wdefnews12 pic.twitter.com/1P4xPJU1zg
Sunday was Easter.
I hope you enjoyed the day with your family.
There are so many ways to enjoy every holiday, be it with a group or by yourself, in silent reflection or boisterous celebration.
No one can tell anyone else how they should worship, celebrate or praise.
And we should be OK with that.
Still, as the commercialization of every religious occurrence continues to extend each year - pretty sure Jesus rising from the dead had little to do with bunnies and searching for eggs - in the practical world the following effort must be praised, from the reporter who caught it, the citizens who embraced it and the Chattanooga police officer who made it become a social media sensation.
Jay GreesonAmber Worthy, a reporter for WDEF Channel 12, was at the scene Easter Sunday at East Lake Courts as an Easter egg hunt was about to start.
Before the kids started to search, Chattanooga Police Department Officer Michael Ampthor was asked to show his dance moves.
What happened next has become a social media sensation, a Facebook frenzy, and a "Hey, that white guy can dance ... for a white guy" moment.
Worthy's social media posts of Officer Ampthor doing the "Stanky Leg" have circled the country. The images got Monday morning play on Fox News and "The Montel Williams Show."
It was charming, organic and, most importantly, real.
Watch the video and you see real connection, real interaction. You see honesty and earnestness.
Among the folks who have re-tweeted Worthy's worthy post was former Chattanooga Chief of Police Fred Fletcher, who has told me more than once that the secret to great community policing is focusing on the community as much as the policing.
In that regard, mission accomplished, Officer Ampthor, because that was true and blue.
And kudos, while we are here, to those in the East Lake Courts community who have held this event each of the last three years in honor of their departed family member Doris Smith. As Worthy further explained on the WDEF website, this was the third year of a community effort to have an Easter egg hunt in honor of Smith, who always gave back to her community in every way she could, and organizers invited the Chattanooga Police Department.
Folks, if that's not the definition of a true community event, then there never will be one.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.