I have had confirmation yesterday from Guinness that even though we did not set a new world record for the largest Locomotion Dance, we did break the original record set in Darlington`s “Head of Steam” Railway Museum in October 2000, where 374 dancers took part. Our 493 this time at least beat that record by about a third - a bit of consolation!
Click the link below to view the article and also the video!
Click the link below to access the photos on the alpha radio website
Now arn’t you impressed at how fast we can be!
Adam did a grand job on the megaphone
Janie and Vicky practicing their train pose
Vicky’s Mum comes prepared with the sun cream!
Lucy and James’ comes prepared with a cap for the sunshine
Vicky has a go on the megaphone
Vicky n Janie have a little run through
Caroline and Lucy join vicky for the event
Passers by get persuaded to join in
Dave Cooil from Rightclick was on official camera duty
Janie gets miked up
Darrien gets interviewed for the TV
Trudy using her charm to talk people into joining in!
Trudy’s daughter Katie is close at hand too
Vicky Darrien n Janie gather on stage
Kate’s daughter Sophie was also joining in the fun
The crowd do the choreography
Doing the locomotion with us!
John and Linda report to me today that they have raised £284 plus assorted foreign coins!! - from their collection and one of the orphans has found a sponsor.
Also someone enquired about their talking to a church group which might bring them some more money in the future. I went to their web site www.handsoflove.org.uk to see what difference that money might make. The link to “Life in Uganda” makes grim reading, where nearly 1 in 4 children in the country are orphaned and can be subjected to terrible exploitation .
£250 is needed each month to make sure that every person in the orphanage (sponsored and unsponsored) gets a decent meal once a month, and this is like a special “party day”. So I think that is a good thing to think that our event has achieved - a party for the Hands of Love Orphanage.
Come on now! We have got the volunteer adults to help us administer the event, our bags are packed, the Forum is bringing the music, Dave has a vantage point to film it from and we have a celebrity guest in Darrien Wright to dance with us and be an official witness. Dave Cox from the Forum and Councillor Scott are our other official witnesses and now this morning we have discovered that Alpha Radio and BBC TV (set your videos for Satrday teatime`s Look North programme) are coming to be part of it and Radio Tees will be interviewing us by phone from the square too. We have a good weather forecast. So what more could you want??
So get yourself down there! Bring your friends and ……Do the Locomotion with me!!
After my final check-up with Guinness, on the previous holders of the Largest Locomotion Dance record, I find that it was set in summer 2007, at a “Wave for Wales” event at Margam Country Park, which I suspect (amazing deduction) is in Wales. In my head it was 1400 that we had to beat but it is in fact 1752!!!!!
Oh well - it looks like it is going to be a sunny day so if we don`t make it - and it is still possible that we could - then we`ll have had a fun day out.
Try and persuade anyone that you are talking to between now and Saturday to come along. It isn`t good for N.E. pride to fail at 2 Guinness attempts in a week (The Redcar bikini girls (400+) failed last weekend to break the record set by Bondi Beach in Australia of 1000+). Still they raised a good amount for The Great North Air Ambulance, so it was worth it anyway. At least after our efforts on Saturday, the Ugandan orphans at The Hands of Love Orphanage should have something to smile about. See you there!!
Thank you to the following people for volunteering to help out on the registration tables on Locomotion Day. I am listing them here in case I have missed a volunteer out. If I have missed YOU out then please give me a ring. If your name is on this list, then I will be sending a letter out to you with relevant details tomorrow and posting a copy to this site under “newsletters”.
IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO VOLUNTEER. I COULD STILL USE ANOTHER TWO OR THREE PEOPLE.
Samantha Gamblin`s mum
Emilie Thelwell`s mum
Diana Betteridge`s gran
Lauren and Fern Turner`s dad
Ethan Hurworth`s mum
Holly Newton`s mum
Stuart Thompson`s mum
Emma Preston`s mum
Charlotte Heselhurst`s mum
Chantelle Smith`s mum
James Barber`s mum
Adam Allinson
Adam, Oliver and Elliot Allinson`s mum
Christian Brown`s mum
Noah Burnip`s mum
Bethany Taylor`s mum
Emma Gibson`s mum
Emma and Holly Bryan`s mum
Megan Robson`s mum
My daughter Katie