THINK Together students and their families along with staff and fans collected more than 15,964,153 pennies over the course of six weeks; and then, in about six and a half hours on March 25th they used 5,491,720 of those coins to lay down a 65-mile chain of pennies on the racetrack at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA; and in doing so, set a new Guinness World Record™.
Students launched the penny drive, “Miles of Change," in February to mark the Bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and originally set out to collect 100 miles of pennies (nearly 8.5 million) in honor of the Centennial of the Lincoln Penny.
The students not only broke the existing Guinness World Record™ (a 40-mile chain) held by youth in Fort Scott, Kansas; but, they exceeded their own goal by collecting almost twice as many pennies. Along the way, they experienced first-hand the collective power that a group of people, each doing his/her individual part, can have in creating “Miles of Change.”
And now, each of THINK Together’s participating students can proudly call themselves “World Record Holders!”
Validating the students’ accomplishment were official judges: Dave Allen, vice president of Auto Club Speedway; and Mark 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™ and a THINK Together program leader.
Others who supported “Miles of Change” included NASCAR Driver Kyle Busch, Auto Club Speedway, Bank of America, All Source Printing, AMR, Brinks, Burrtec Disposal, Chivas USA, Ferndales, Gate City Beverage Distributors, Kiwanis International, KOLA 99.9 FM, Ontario Reign, Rutan & Tucker, LLP, Stater Bros. Charities, Stronghold Engineering, Univision, UPS, & Yakult.
