CLEARFIELD – On Wednesday at Noon, students at Clearfield Elementary School joined over 500,000 children and adults across the United States attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the “Most People Reading Aloud Simultaneously in Multiple Locations.”
The selection the students read was from “Charlotte’s Web,” the best-selling children’s paperback of all time. Second, third and fourth graders participated in the event as they read the passage where Charlotte the spider and Wilbur, a very small pig, first meet. From that meeting springs a friendship that leads to a resourceful Charlotte to prove that Wilbur is “some pig” worth saving.
Patti Gilliland, mayor of Clearfield, Don Herres, director of the YMCA, and John Sobel, school board member acted as witnesses. Their job was to ensure the Guinness World Record guidelines were followed. Third and fourth grade teachers served as lead readers for their classes, directing the reading when the official start time was announced. Dr. Denise Keltz, superintendent of the Clearfield Area School District led the combined second grade classes in the reading of the passage.
Preschoolers, kindergartners and first graders were with second graders, listening to them read and cheering them on as the read for a record. In a school-wide effort, staff volunteered as lead readers, registration witnesses and photographers to meet the Guinness World Record requirements. Many classes will continue to read “Charlotte’s Web” as a read-aloud.
According to Guinness World Records, the current record for the largest number of people reading the same piece of literature aloud, simultaneously in multiple locations is 155,528 students from 737 schools throughout the United Kingdom. They read William Wordsworth’s poem “Daffodils” on March 19, 2004