Hearing Support Bay of Plenty smashed the Guinness World record for Chinese Whispers as part of Hearing Awareness Week. The record attempt took place at Tauranga Intermediate and students from six primary schools – Maungatapu, Tauranga Primary, Welcome Bay, Greerton Village, Merivale, and Greenpark were also brought in to help add to the numbers. The existing Guinness World Record was 1330 and the new record set today is 1763 people.

Uzabus were proud to sponsor all of the buses to transport the contributing school students.

There was much excitement and fanfare, with players from the Bay of Plenty Steamers present to take part and give out spot prizes. MORE FM provided the event’s MC, and the dapper Tim Wilson was there reporting for TVNZ’s Seven Sharp.

The pupils were divided into classes, with each class departing once they passed the whisper through their ranks and onto the next class.

Kicking off the mass Chinese Whispers was Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless, who had the honour of whispering the three-word phrase – “Turn it down” – to local MP Simon Bridges, who then passed it on to the first child.

The world record attempt is part of Hearing Week 2017, an initiative by the National Foundation for the Deaf which aims to raise awareness of hearing-impaired people and the impacts of hearing loss.

 

Who says kids today don’t listen?
Video Source: Seven Sharp