Come and Help Tacoma set the Guinness World Record for the Longest Hopscotch Game

10 a.m.–1 p.m. Sunday, May 3

Jones Circle, University of Puget Sound

BBQ, music, kids’ clay art, and fundraising for Tacoma’s schoolchildren

TACOMA, Wash. – “It sounds wacky, and it’s harder than people think—3.5 miles of hopping. But it’s a great way to bring together the community.”

With those words, University of Puget Sound senior Brandon Johnson ’15 and a band of others are launching Puget Sound Hopscotch—Tacoma’s first-ever attempt to set the Guinness World Record for the longest hopscotch course.

            Everyone is invited to come to hop for Tacoma on the University of Puget Sound campus Sunday, May 3, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. The fundraising event will aim to break the world record for the “longest hopscotch game,” last set at 3.42 miles at the University of Guelph, near Toronto, Canada, in 2011. Our goal: a whopping 3.5 miles.

The course, marked with blue and yellow flour, will wind along the campus sidewalks and parking lots, and begin and end at Kittredge Art Gallery. Registration opens at 9:30 a.m. at Jones Circle, near N. Alder and N. 15th streets, or you can register online at pugetsound.edu/hopscotch.

And NO, you do not have to hop the entire course. But the families, adults, teens, and kids who do come along for some hopping great barbecue food, music by KUPS radio, and kids’ clay art can do Tacoma a good turn, even if they sit on the sidelines taking selfies. With a suggested donation of $5 a person or $10 a family, the event will raise funds for Puget Sound’s youth programs, which organize college student tutoring and mentoring for the schoolchildren of Tacoma.

YES, someone does have to hop the entire course in order to set the Guinness World Record: two people, in fact. Those would be Brandon Johnson, who had this bright idea, and his good friend Graham Robinson ’15. Together with a small team of other hoppers, they are now in training for an ordeal that they figure will take a couple of hours and at least a pound of sweat.

Come cheer them on! Come put Tacoma on the map and be able to say “I was there when ...”

“This is a dream I’ve had for ten years, to set the world record for the longest hopscotch course,” Johnson said. “Hopscotch is a growing trend that a lot of people are using to connect cities. Detroit has a course and Seattle’s Central District has one. Everything about this event suggests a great way to usher in summer and to bring the community together.”

Numerous groups are participating by hopping, volunteering, or sponsoring materials. These include some Tacoma public schools; Tacoma School of the Arts; AmeriCorps volunteers; Franz Bakery, which is providing the ingredients to mark the hopscotch course; and college groups including the Center for Intercultural and Civic Engagement, Greek houses, KUPS radio, and the yoga, ceramics, and ECO arts clubs. Volunteers to help at the event on the day and local celebrities to hop for Tacoma at Puget Sound Hopscotch are welcome. See contact information below.

The 3.5-mile hopscotch course will be created during the two days before, using a large template that will be laid down hundreds of times and colored blue and yellow with a field sprayer issuing a mixture of flour and cornstarch. Rain will later wash it away.

To break the Guinness World Record, several criteria have to be met, including videos and paperwork to prove the length of the course and completion of it by at least two people.

Proceeds from the fundraising will benefit the college’s Center for Intercultural and Civic Engagement’s youth programs that match Puget Sound college students with Tacoma youth for mentoring and tutoring, in partnership with Tacoma Public Schools, Peace Community Center, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound, and Communities In Schools of Tacoma.

To register for Puget Sound Hopscotch visit:  pugetsound.edu/hopscotch

For the latest information on Facebook visit: facebook.com/events/355670921307403/ 

To volunteer or involve your community group contact: Skylar on cice@pugetsound.edu or Brandon on Tel. 509.953.2862

For directions and a map of the University of Puget Sound campus: pugetsound.edu/directions

For accessibility information please contact accessibility@pugetsound.edu or 253.879.3236, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility.

Photo on page: University of Puget Sound student marks out a trial hopscotch course. Photo by Ross Mulhausen, University of Puget Sound