Big Brothers Big Sisters to compete for world 'telephone' record

Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Central Indiana will try to solve its need for volunteers in an unconventional manner – by attempting to break a world record.

This Saturday at the University Gym, the organization hopes to gather at least 1,400 participants for the largest game of telephone ever played.

The event is the first part of the organization’s “Breaking Records ... Building Lives” campaign, and it aims not only to recruit volunteers, but also to raise awareness for the organization, said Kathy Delaney-Willett, director of outreach and enrollment.

“I really wanted something fun and noticeable,” she said, which is why she took the theme of the campaign literally.

Obviously, breaking a record isn’t easy, Delaney-Willett said. The current record for largest game of telephone is 1,300, she said.

Guinness World Records has set various parameters for the event.

For instance, there must be two official witnesses during the course of the event and there must be complete silence. No participant is able to leave until the event is finished and the event must be taped, Delaney-Willett said.

The game will begin when the official sentence is whispered to the first person who then writes it down and hands it to an official witness. The message can be skewed along the way, but what matters for the books is the number of participants, she said.

But the game is only one small part of the event, Delaney-Willett said.

“To us it’s a representation of the game rather than the game itself,” she said.

The reason 1,400 participants are needed is not only to exceed the current record, but to represent the 1,400 children the organization hopes to serve, said Megan Oldham, the marketing intern for BBBS.

So far, the organization has gathered about half the number of participants and is still spreading the word about the event, Oldham said.

In addition to the 50 or more kids signed up for the event are various groups from IU, such as those in the greek system and even auditorium ushers, Delaney-Willett said.

BBBS relies mostly on donors and volunteers, and because of the recent economic downturn, the need for big brothers and big sisters has increased, BBBS Executive Director Beth Krouse said.

“We’ve grown so much, and we’ve got to prepare ourselves to meet the need,” Krouse said.

“We have never, in the 37 years we’ve been in Monroe County, had that many people hear the message at once,” Krouse said.

As for the message for the game, Krouse said it will be something along the theme of their mission: supporting kids, recruiting big siblings and changing the life of children.

Even if the record isn’t broken, the organization won’t see it as a failure.

“If we can get volunteers out of this, it’s a success because we’ve matched another child,” she said.