ECU alums engaged during surprise flash mob

By Jennifer Brezina
College of Business

Who says accountants can’t be fun and romantic when it comes time to pop the question?

Andrew Stoker ’11, a CPA now working in Philadelphia, hired a flash mob to impress Scarlet Van Loon ’11 of Winston-Salem when he dropped to bended knee last month. A video of his proposal made the local news in Philadelphia and has since gone viral.
A flash mob is when a group plans ahead to suddenly assemble in a public place to perform a seemingly pointless act, then quickly disperses. Stoker led Van Loon to believe they were participating with some friends in a flash mob dance in Philadelphia’s Washington Square. At the end of the flash mob gathering, the other dancers suddenly circled around Stoker and Van Loon and began singing “Kiss the Girl” from The Little Mermaid movie.

That’s when he popped the question.

“It took just under two months to plan from start to finish,” Stoker said. “It was definitely worth the wait to see the surprise and excitement on Scarlet’s face and hear ‘yes’ as her answer.”

Stoker said he’s still in shock himself that the video has gone viral. It started out as a post on his Facebook page. It has since tallied about 25,000 views.

Stoker and Van Loon met through athletics at ECU. He was a three-year letterman and captain of the swim team, and she played on the soccer team.

The Department of Accounting named Stoker its outstanding senior for 2011; he graduated summa cum laude. He and Van Loon both received awards for academic excellence.

Today, Stoker works with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Philadelphia as a senior tax associate. Van Loon, who majored in communication, is a personal trainer and aspires to become an actress.

He says they haven’t set an official date yet, but they hope to be married sometime next fall.

ECU alumnus Andrew Stoker ’11 proposed to Scarlet Van Loon ’11 following a surprise flash mob he arranged for the occasion.