World Record Attempt Falls Short of Goal

Mason students working together to break the current world record for the longest game of telephone fell far short of their goal.

The final count of 131 participants, confirmed with a Student Activities member, did not reach even 10 percent of the 1,330 British students that hold the current title.

Mason student Julie Allstrom wrote about her experience at the world record attempt.

Click Read More to see what she had to say.

World record participant, that’s me, and I’ve got the wristband to prove it. 

I joined a group of students and staff on Wednesday afternoon in the Johnson Center North Plaza to try for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Our task was to beat a group of 1,330 British students who hold the current title for playing the longest game of telephone. I handed over my Mason student I.D. to become an official participant and received my green wristband.

Danielle Lapierre of the Office of Alcohol, Drug and Health Education directed people to line up as Student Activities associate director Dennis Hicks encouraged every passerby to join the game. The idea for attempting to break this world record came from the Welcome Week Committee, according to Lapierre. She kept a sealed manila envelope marked TOP SECRET PHRASE close at hand.

Patricia Muench, a Mason sophomore, was first in line to hear the top secret phrase. Muench, decked out in gold and green Nikes and a Mason tee-shirt, said she wanted to participate because she is “very Mason-spirited.”

Further down the line I met Richard Siemieniak, a junior transfer student from Virginia Beach in his first week at Mason. Siemieniak wants to be more involved in campus activities here than he was at his former school.

Junior Alicia Gonzalez realized it was the first Welcome Week activity she had ever attended. Brittany Wilson, sophomore, “likes all kinds of people” and was drawn to the diversity of the gathering. Krissy Lloyd, freshman, met Wilson standing in line and said she has tried to attend most of the Week’s events. Asked how she likes Mason so far, she responded, “I love it!”

About 3:20 pm, Lapierre announced that part of our challenge involved maintaining total silence when the game started and that we would play a practice round. We were instructed to face Johnson Center and whisper the words we heard from the person on our left to the person on our right. Neal Landers, a sophomore Resident Advisor, whispered to me, “Stephanie has an awesome face.” I turned and whispered the same sentence to sophomore Polly Carr. We soon found out that the practice round started as “Tonight’s event is going to be the most awesome event – I love the T-shirt!” That left us all wondering about awesome Stephanie.

Finally, Danielle Lapierre opened the sealed envelope and Patricia Muench started the real game. Neal Landers whispered to me, “Our Patriot pride we could not hide. If only we could, the green and gold will not be denied.” I guess we’ll know later how close we were to the real top secret statement and if we won the world record. When I left at 3:30 pm, we had 131 participants.