On March 25, 2009, students and fans of THINK Together after-school programs used more than 5,491,720 pennies they had collected to lay down a chain of pennies 65 miles long on the racetrack at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. It took nearly six and a half hours to complete the feat. Pending official word from England, they expect to have set a new Guinness World Record for the longest chain of pennies.
The previous World Record established in July 2008 by youth in Fort Scott, Kansas, was set with completion of a 40-mile chain of pennies.
Beginning in February -- to mark the Bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's Birth -- students in THINK Together after-school programs across Southern California launched a penny drive. They set out to collect 100 miles of pennies (nearly 8.5 million) to commemorate the Centennial of the Lincoln Penny. After they completed the six week penny drive they actually realized nearly 16 million pennies.
All the funds collected, nearly $160,000, go back into funding THINK Together's free after-school programs.
PR Newswire: Press Release
Photos: Flickr
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