A South African charity for aquatic rescue has created a line of 11,602 lollipops and secured the Guinness World Record for the longest line of lollipops.
Twenty-seven volunteers from Station 5 of the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) created the candy line on the Durban Beachfront Promenade which is a popular tourist attraction in South Africa.
The NSRI volunteers first marked out a snaking line across the broadwalk. Then they split into teams of two to work on different sections. The entire process took only 90 minutes. At one point, a filming drone flew too low and blew away some lollipops. But the damage was quickly fixed. The adjudicator needed a team of five to count the candy.
According to the Guinness World Records, the line had to be at least 9,999 lollipops long to achieve the record and every single candy had to be touching. No matter how small, any breaks discovered would have failed the attempt.
A volunteer involved in the task told the Guinness World Records that laying down lollipops is like a walk in the park because they do the difficult work of saving lives. Severe winds that can ruin the formation were the main challenge.
The NSRI is a volunteer-led rescue organisation founded in 1967. It was established after three fishing vessels were lost near Stilbaai. The NSRI's Water Safety Education programme started in 2006 and focuses on teaching people in South Africa how to be safe in and around water.