“The day was fantastic. I can’t believe how many people came out to support us,” said Kamari Brown-Gain, a student organizer for the Hopscotch for Hope event on Oct. 1.
“I am so grateful for all the help we got and all the people who supported our cause.”
The event had 5.5 kilometres of hopscotch squares up and down the streets without a millimetre of blank space between the lines.
To meet the requirements of the Guinness World Record, the leaders of Eden Mills’ Step Up 4 Change and University of Guelph Right To Play and Free The Children clubs worked 11-hour days to make sure they got it right.
Not only did they make hopscotch history, they used the jumping game as a trampoline for helping disadvantaged children.
More than 850 people came to hop, skip, walk, jump and run the longest hopscotch course in the world, with the aim of breaking the previous 5,283.99 metre record.
The organizers have met the requirements as stated and are submitting their results and proofs to the Guinness officials for assessment and official recognition.
The Hopscotch 4 Hope event was a fundraiser for the international Free the Children and Right to Play organizations. A joint initiative organized by three young girls from Eden Mills (Kory Melnick and Brown-Gain, both 13, and Robin Melnick, 11) and students from the University of Guelph Right To Play and Free The Children clubs, the idea was designed to help build Kenya’s first high school for girls, Kisaruni All Girls Secondary School.
It was also to contribute to other disadvantaged communities locally as well. The project was inspired when the girls attended last year’s Free the Children conference in Waterloo.
Kory Melnick was excited by the Hopscotch success.
“It was a great event with children supporting children. All the awareness and money we have raised is incredible and everyone at Hopscotch 4 Hope did an amazing job,” she said.
The event raised more than $22,000 for the international projects, and $28,000 worth of in-kind support from sponsors, high rates of participation, and food and silent auction revenue.
Youth from the village, from Rockwood Centennial Elementary School, University of Guelph students, family, friends and neighbours became part of a world-wide phenomenon of young activists making change, and building an international network of committed young people. A special thanks went to Simplistic Lines, for assisting in building the course.
The day of activities included speakers Shawn Shepheard, Guelph-Eramosa Mayor Chris White, Bria Wilbur (of Free the Children) and Laura Thomas (of Right to Play).
Live music filled the park all afternoon (Your Neck of the Woods, Brent Freeman and the Tiger Sharks and Fitness Club Fiasco) while people tried their hand at a variety of games and activities ranging from stilt walking to hopscotch basketball. The Brampton Acro Ropers demonstrated the speedy sport of rope jumping and double dutch too.
On the Monday following the Hopscotch 4 Hope event, representatives of the Kenyan Kisaruni School visited students at Rockwood Centennial.
Kory Melnick echoed the feelings of everyone who attended. “I am so excited that Hopscotch 4 Hope was such a huge success,” she said.
“It was so awesome and I definitely think the event was much more than I or anyone ever imagined. Even though the lines of the hopscotch course will fade, I will always remember this special day.”
