Everyone can agree that fighting cancer is a good thing.
And at least a lot of people can agree that heading to the pub for a drink with friends is a good thing.
Enter Crawl for Cancer, Inc.
This group, established in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, has been organizing pub crawls since 2001 to raise money and awareness for those fighting cancer. It hosts pub crawls in 20 cities across America and biannually in its native Kansas City.
For years, the group unofficially saw thousands of participants signing up and taking part in its outings. Finally, this year, they decided to make it official – GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS official.
The result? A new record achievement of 4,885 participants for the most people on a pub crawl, achieved on June 1.
"I have always been proud of our organization," said Crawl for Cancer president Samantha Green, "for bringing people together to remember those we've lost, to celebrate survivors, and raise significant money for the wonderful charities we support while having fun doing it."
The crawl took place in Kansas City’s renowned Power & Light District, of which 21 different pubs took part and ordered more than 4,600 gallons of beer to support the festivities. The crawl raised more than $100,000 (£65,145) for local charities.
Record guidelines stated that each participant had to drink at least half a pint of any drink (alcoholic or not) at a minimum of 10 different bars and that the whole event had to be completed within 8 hours. Only public transportation or walking was permitted, and for those who did take part in a libation, all drinking age laws were adhered to.
With many of the participants having known cancer sufferers or survived the disease themselves, the pub crawl took on a festive atmosphere with costumes and good times being the themes of the day.
Only adding to the event, bar crawlers’ costumes ranged from army fatigues, grass skirts, and Ninja Turtles to Smurfs and Oompa-Loompas.
Now in the official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS database, the achievement of Crawl For Cancer knocked off the previous pub crawl mark of 4,718 participants that had stood for four years.
"This record was a lot of work and determination by hundreds of volunteers and thousands of participants," Green said. "It confirms that we are the biggest and the best fundraising pub crawl in the world!"
