Longest line of coins-world record set by THINK
Together
FONTANA, CA, USA -- Close to 2,000 students
and 200 chaperones worked nearly six and a half hours to lay
down a 65 mile chain of pennies on the racetrack at Auto Club
Speedway in Fontana, CA, setting a new World Record for the
longest
line of coins. Photo: Southern California students who
participate in THINK Together after-school programs set a
new World Record using more than 5,491,200 pennies to fill
more than 3,432 cardboard trays, each one connected by a penny
in the corner, to create a chain of pennies more than 65 miles
long on the racetrack at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA.
(PRNewsFoto/THINK Together) (enlarge
photo)
The students outdid themselves because in all,
they ended up collecting more than 15.8 million pennies or
$158,722.63 worth of change. That is nearly 188 miles of pennies.
All of the change collected, including nearly
5.5 million pennies used to accomplish the World Record feat,
will go directly into funding activities for the free after-school
program which targets at-risk and low-income students.
Validating the students' accomplishment
were official judges: Dave Allen, vice president of Auto Club
Speedway; and Marc Cipres, Security Manager, UPS.
Serving as additional honorary judges for the
event were; Matt Mullins, star of The CW's "Kamen Rider: Dragon
Knight;" Gerson Mayen, Chivas USA soccer player; Leona Aronoff-Sadacca,
THINK Together board member; and Michelle Babin, an alum of
America's Next Top Model(TM) and a THINK
Together program leader. Photo: Southern California students in THINK
Together after-school programs collected more than 15.8 million
pennies during February and March and then in the course of
six and half hours 2,000 of those students used nearly 5.5
million of the coins to lay down a chain of pennies 65 miles
long on the racetrack at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA
setting a new World Record for the longest chain of pennies.
(PRNewsFoto/THINK Together) (enlarge
photo)
In early February, more than 35,000 students
in THINK
Together's after-school programs throughout Los Angeles,
Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino County launched a penny
drive, "Miles
of Change," to commemorate the Bicentennial of Abraham
Lincoln's birth; and in recognition of the Lincoln Penny's
Centennial, the students set out to collect at least 8.5 million
pennies, or 100 miles of pennies.
"President Obama and his wife Michelle
remind us that people, each doing their individual part, have
the collective power to create miles of change. And it's in
that spirit that we designed the 'Miles of Change' community
engagement project so our students could experience that first-hand,"
said Randy Barth, founder and CEO of THINK
Together.
Larry Tenney, THINK
Together's chief public affairs officer and the director
of the "Miles
of Change" project said, "Among other things, we hoped
this broad-scale, unprecedented community engagement project
would bring much attention to THINK
Together and our program throughout the region and
it appears we've done just that. "
'Miles
of Change' was successful because our students and
their families, our staff, our fans and our community partners
including Auto Club Speedway, Bank of America, AMR, Brinks,
Burrtec Disposal, Chivas USA, Univision, UPS, Yakult and others
came together with a common goal, each doing their individual
part."
"Close to 40,000 people were involved in
creating 'Miles
of Change.' Their efforts have demonstrated to our
students what's possible," added Tenney.
THINK
Together, a non-profit, is the largest provider of
academically-focused after-school programs in California serving
more than 35,000 low-income and at-risk students at 200+ sites
across a four-county footprint of Southern California (Los
Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties).
THINK
is an acronym that stands for Teaching, Helping, Inspiring
& Nurturing Kids.