The band was at the Monroeville Mall yesterday to help raise money during the B94 radio/Adecco Children's Miracle Network radio-thon stationed there. The minute Hanson appeared at 11:45 a.m., the previously demure girls began blocking and tackling like linebackers for a chance to get an autograph or handshake from the teen-age musicians.

"I'm never washing my hand again. Smell it! That's Ike!" squealed Amy Reider, 17, of Maytown, York County, after Isaac Hanson slipped her a handshake. She and three camera-wielding friends arrived at the mall at 4 a.m. yesterday after a 4 1/2-hour drive to get a perfect perch beside the stage. Fans reportedly came from as far as Seattle, Buffalo, Connecticut and Canada. "I don't know where these people are coming from," said a wide-eyed Keith Clark, B94's director of operations/programming. "We expected about 750 people. We had no idea this many people would show up."

Hanson played Twister with radio disc jockeys on the mall stage as clusters of fans leaned over the upper deck rails and thousands more crammed into the hallway in front of Lazarus. They waved balloons, flowers and signs, bedecked in T-shirts, buttons and pins, their faces brandishing permanent marker tattoos of band members' names. Camera flashes lit the mall, and some people stood tiptoe with video cameras attached to the ends of their outstretched arms. The crowd gave waves of banshee shrieks. Hanson brothers Isaac, 19, and Taylor, 16, both in black leather jackets and jeans, and Zac, 14, in a T-shirt and cargo pants, alternately waved and smiled.

But about 30 minutes into the appearance as the band left the stage to sign autographs at a nearby table, the crowd grew impatient and started shoving harder, pressing the 35 mall security guards and radio station employees into action.

"If I wasn't holding that table back, them Hanson kids would've got crushed," said a guard.

The enthusiasm soon took its toll. With a triage in the front of Lazarus, dozens of sobbing, crimson-faced fans sat on the floor between the no-iron Dockers and the Amalfi golf shirts, huffing oxygen from masks and taking relaxation cues from Monroeville Fire Department paramedics. Despite the hyperventilation, the weeping and the groans, no one was seriously hurt. "It was little girls looking at these guys and fainting because the guys looked at them," said Rick Little, general manager of Monroeville Mall. Through her tears, Allison Stitt, 15, of Salisbury, Lehigh County, professed her love for the band as she recovered from passing out, probably from the sheer excitement and heat generated by the crowd, said registered nurse Natalie Shoop, who stopped to assist paramedics.

"Sarah, I passed out! Don't ever leave me!" Stitt yelled as her friends walked by. "Ohmigod, Amber collapsed!" another called to her friends. "I couldn't stand the smell of people," someone said. Sharon Capone of Murrysville was at the mall to pick up her 14-year-old daughter who had been there since 4 a.m. Capone remembered the days of her youth when she swooned over "the Beatles and the Monkees. But that'll say how old I am by that, huh?"

Although she never met her heroes, she got to meet Hanson on her way in the mall. "They said 'Hi. How're you doing?' and shook our hands," she said with a little more excitement than expected. Security guards got an earful from some frustrated teens and their parents who were upset that the kids were jostling them. "They were just pushing and now I can't meet [Hanson]," a teen bawled. "You tell the Hansons that they owe me," one mom bellowed. The band, surprised by the large turnout and enthusiasm, ducked out of the building in a shroud of guards at 12:40 p.m. to sobs from teens with unshaken hands. But those who had autographs were buried in tears of joy, with a story to tell their friends at school tomorrow. Hanson's newest record, due out in June, may be released early if fan demand in other cities is as big as it was in Pittsburgh yesterday, said Ken Lane, senior vice president of promotion with the band's record label, Island. The Hanson appearance earned about $13,000 for the Children's Institute and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, including $1,000 from the band member themselves. Fans gave donations to get autographs and jockeyed for the autographed Twister board at an online auction. Although Monroeville Mall has seen its share of soap opera stars, Little couldn't think of any event that has generated such a buzz. "Most of the kids were pretty good," he said with a laugh. "We didn't lose any of our guards."