Ramona Branch, 75, planned to bring her best bouquet-making skills to Newport on Saturday. After all, as she pointed out, she would be making history.
Branch, who hails from Dublin, N.H., and is a member of her local garden club, was one of hundreds of people who descended on the town common for the chance to create and set a world record for the most people making flower bouquets simultaneously. And before the day was done, they’d cemented their place in history and made the “Sunshine Town” a little brighter.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Branch said as she stood in line with a handful of friends.
The attempt was organized by the Newport Sunshine Initiative, a nonprofit started by town native Jay Lucas to revitalize the once-thriving manufacturing burg. The event served as a “two-fer,” Lucas said: “A way to bring the community together and (get) the word out about Newport.”
Lucas, founder of a national headhunter company and a 1998 gubernatorial candidate, started the project in January 2018 after driving downtown and noting the vacant storefronts and crumbling buildings.
The Sunshine Initiative has since grown from the initial two members to more than 100, he said.
Last winter, the group’s leaders decided to launch a project playing off the town’s nickname, the “Sunshine Town.” They sent a packet of sunflower seeds to each of the town’s 6,500 residents. This summer, individuals and school groups planted more than 2,800 packets around town, said Lucas, who grew up in Newport but now lives in Portsmouth.
Saturday’s event offered an opportunity to put the beautification effort on display, according to organizers.
“How can we take this and let the world see?” said Christine Benner, a Newport resident who organized the event.
It wasn’t the town’s first foray into record-setting.
In 2011, Newport set the record for the largest beard and moustache competition with 462 participants.
Indeed, Saturday’s record-setting attempt, verified by an official from the Guinness Book of World Records, attracted its share or participants. The event drew state senators, the Newport High School football team and local families. A dozen members of the New London Garden Club, all wearing matching white shirts, made the trip.
Newport resident Adrienne Camfield, 54, brought her own home-grown sunflowers in a paper cup to add to her bouquet.
Vendors sold vegetables and artisan wares from tents, and children played Kan Jam and cornhole on the green.
But despite the festive atmosphere, it was all business when it came to the bouquets.
There was no standing record for flower bouquets, but at least 250 people were needed to set any “mass participation” record, according to official adjudicator Mike Marcotte of the Guinness Book. He flew in from Minneapolis to oversee the attempt.
Flower arranging may be an art, but world-record setting is more of science. Each bouquet was to be 12 stalks — including one sunflower— and just two pieces of greenery. A bouquet would be acceptable only if tied around the bottom with a ribbon. No exceptions.
Just after 11 a.m., registered participants filed in to the “attempt area,” a line of folding tables cordoned off with caution tape. They collected their dozen flowers and made their bouquets.
When the participants had finished, volunteer judges verified each arrangement and Marcotte tallied the results.
By 1 p.m., Marcotte had made the official pronouncement: 339 people had simultaneously created bouquets — and, in the process, a world record. Crowds cheered and a man blared an airhorn in celebration.
“I just want to say how proud I am of the town and the community spirit we see here,” Lucas gushed.
The bouquet record will be published online, though it may not be in hard copies of the Guinness Book. There are 50,000 standing world records total, according to Marcotte, but only 4,000 make it into print.
Next year, Newport residents hope to add another sunflower-related record to their collection: Maybe the largest human sunflower, suggested Benner, of the Sunshine Initiative.
But now was time to celebrate: Participants lined up for their official certificates and snapped photos with Marcotte, holding up their bouquets in triumph.
Katie Jickling can be reached at katiejickling@gmail.com.