Blackout can’t stop readers aiming to break world record

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, December 20, 2006

POULSBO — More than 500,000 readers from around the world attempted to break a Guinness World Record by simultaneously reading aloud a one-page passage from the E.B. White masterpiece — “Charlotte’s Web” on Dec. 13.

It was also the day when power was out at Poulsbo’s schools until around 3 p.m. Poulsbo Elementary — one of those three schools — was slated to support 300 students in the record-breaking attempt that day.

With a lot of focus and a little luck, the outage coincided with the conclusion of the recitation.

Then, there was celebration.

“There was an uproar of applause at the end,” said organizer and school librarian Nancy Bale. “We were all so excited.”

The official count of 299 world-record-attempting Poulsbo Elementary schoolers filed into the gym as they arrived at school, readying for the official start time of 9 a.m.

“Just as we did the countdown … our lights went into emergency mode,” Bale said of the school’s backup light system. “So it was dark, but we had (electric) lanterns and flashlights … we were all ready.”

The school lights held as the student body began its reading, but throughout the course of the passage of the story when Charlotte and Wilbur meet for the first time, they flickered.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, let us get to the last word,’” Bale said. “You could feel our energy in there. Everyone was hoping, ‘Let us get to that last period.’”

In front of teachers, some parents, photographers and official witnesses — like Seattle Police Department retirees Floyd Walker, Glen Gilbert and Roger Ammundsen — Poulsbo Elementary students read aloud with an estimated 547,826 other readers from all 50 states and 28 countries according to Walden Media, which promoted the event to build awareness of “Charlotte’s Web,” also in conjunction with the release of a new Hollywood movie of the classic — which hit theaters Friday.

The event marks another creative way the school has attempted to engage its students in reading. During the past year, Poulsbo Elementary students checked out more than 20,000 books. And they plan to keep reading in anticipation of the confirmation of the world record attempt, which should come by February, Bale said.

The current Guinness world record for “Most People Reading Aloud Simultaneously in Multiple Locations” is 155,528 students from 737 schools throughout the United Kingdom, who read a William Wordsworth poem in 2004.

At 9:02 a.m. Dec. 13, more than 500,000 worldwide readers finished the Charlotte’s Web passage, and the power went out completely at Poulsbo Elementary.

Students and staff at Pearson Elementary, Poulsbo Junior High and North Kitsap High schools — despite also losing power Dec. 13 — carried on as normal.