To launch a health initiative (which included the Michigan 4-H “Jump Into Food and Fitness” curriculum), on October 8, 2004, 1,910 Owosso public school students and staff members set the world record for “most people jumping rope simultaneously.” (Photo courtesy of The Argus-Press)

By Beth Stuever

When Jennifer Weichel sat down with the community education director for Owosso Public Schools, she expected to forge a working relationship that would be beneficial to students and parents. She didn’t expect a project that would land in the Guinness Book of World Records.
“We were trying to launch a health initiative, and the conversation snowballed from the “Jump Into Food and Fitness” curriculum to making jump ropes with kids in an after-school program to breaking the jump rope world record,” explains Weichel, Shiawassee County 4-H youth educator. “The next thing I knew, we had five people in the school for four days helping kids make jump ropes.”

Their efforts paid off on October 8, 2004, when 1,910 Owosso public school students and staff members jumped rope on the band practice field. The group jumped all over the previous world record set by 1,356 students in the United Kingdom in 2003 and now own the title for “most people jumping rope simultaneously.”

“It was an amazing sight that got a lot of press,” Weichel says. “It gave us good recognition and, because it wasn’t animal-related, opened people’s eyes to the diverse programs 4-H offers.”

Weichel wanted to hold the event during National 4-H Week to kick off a health initiative that helped garner support for two 4-H After School programs in Owosso. “We didn’t just jump rope and walk away,” she explains. “We used this as a way to get in the door and then worked with the school system to provide after-school activities.”

The project blossomed into 4-H After School programs in two of Owosso’s five elementary schools and two elementary schools in the county. All began last fall in at-risk neighborhoods where children often went home to empty houses.

According to Steve Brooks, principal of Owosso’s Bryant Elementary School, being involved in a 4-H club not only gives students a place to go after school, it also exposes them to positive adult role models.

“Setting the jump rope world record got students excited about coming to school, and 4-H After School built on that momentum,” he says. “It’s been encouraging for our kids to work with Extension. They learn new things that they wouldn’t normally learn about and get a hands-on element to their education that they couldn’t get anywhere else.”