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Darien High School sophomore Patrick Durkin kept his mind focused Wednesday afternoon as he and 350 other students broke the Guinness World Record for the most people standing on one leg at the same time. "I kept telling myself, 'Don't fall. Don't fall. Don't fall.' I just focused on the leg I was standing on," Durkin said.
The students had to stand on one leg for two minutes and accomplished it on their first try. They were not allowed to switch feet or lean on anybody for them to beat the previous record of 340 people.
Durkin came up with the idea of the record-breaking feat as a way to raise money for the class. Every student paid $2 to participate, with 75 percent of the proceeds going to the sophomore class and 25 percent going to prevent child abuse.
Before the event began, the organizers were scrambling to get enough people involved to break the record. The track team came in at the last minute, adding significant numbers to the crowd. Durkin said some feared that they wouldn't get enough people to participate. But by reaching out to the coaches of sports teams, they wrangled up enough students to get into the record books.
"It shows how united Darien High School really is, that they were able to pull together in such a short time frame," said sophomore Kylie Maier.
The students thought of raising money for child abuse as part of National Child Abuse Awareness Month and wanted to aid Childhelp, an organization that works to prevent child abuse. "It's an issue that's close to our age, so I think a lot of people here empathize. You could be helping somebody you know," Maier said.
After becoming record breakers, the kids broke out into wild cheers. Sophomore Riley Sousa was ecstatic and is expecting an invitation to the royal wedding.
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