Two Bungay Elementary School 5th graders corralled more than 500 people into the school gym Monday, hoping for World Record glory.
But an elementary school in Ohio, a college in Pennsylvania, and then a middle school in Virginia recently made the same attempt to break the world record for most bellies rubbed and heads patted at the same time.
Now, Bungay School students must wait for official counts to be verified by the Guinness Book of World Records to find out if they broke the current record and held off the challengers.
Bungay School referees Monday recorded 477 of the 519 participants as having successfully completed the task for one minute straight.
Participants included students from kindergarten through fifth grade, Superintendent of Schools Mary Ann Mascolo and even Daniel C. McElhinney, the deputy coordinator for the regional office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), who was at the school to present an award Monday morning.
To count under Guinness Book rules, everyone must begin at the same time, end at the same time, and not remove their hand from their bellies during the entire one-minute stretch.
The feat must be recorded and also must have media coverage.
The event was organized by 5th graders Ethan Iott and Gohar Khan.
The students said they were reading the 2010 Guinness Book of World Records, when they saw the current record for most people rubbing their bellies and patting their heads at once: 169 people.
“He (Khan) was reading through, and finds that, and we said ‘We can try to beat that,’” Iott said of the impetus for Monday’s event.
From there, Khan contacted the Guinness Book of World Records to sign up as a competitor to break the record, while Iott presented the idea to the school’s PTA.
The duo has competition from other large groups around the country, which organized similar events this spring to try to break the same record.
In April, students at Grove City College in Pennsylvania said they got 514 people to complete the same task successfully.
In May, elementary students at Clough Pike Elementary School in Cincinnati, Ohio also said they got more than 500 people to complete the task all at once.
And just last week, Blue Ridge Middle School in Purcellville, Virginia also made an attempt. New reports said more than 1,000 people there rubbed bellies and patted heads at once.
All the attempts are waiting for confirmation.
The Bungay students will submit their official forms to the Guinness Book and wait to hear if they beat the record.
Judges will review video tapes and notarized forms attesting to the number completed, said Bungay’s principal Mary Sue Feige.