Jumping for Jumpstart

The students at Hong Kong’s ESF South Island School (SIS) jumped their way into the Guinness Book of World Records on 24 March, 2015. At 10.05am precisely, 1,449 members of the SIS community did star jumps for two minutes, breaking the world record for “Most People Simultaneously Doing Jumping Jacks”.

The record breaker was also a fundraiser – SIS students raised HK$80,000 for the ICM kindergarten they sponsor.

“It’s great for South Island to hold a World Record. It was fun and enjoyable but the most important thing is our contribution towards International Care Ministries (ICM) and our Malayang Mangarap (Free to Dream) Kindergarten in Bacolod, the Philippines,” said Graham Silverthorne, Principal of SIS. “We are committed to supporting our adopted kindergarten for five years. Our school’s aim is to make a difference and we feel that this is one of the many ways that we truly can.”

“What better way to celebrate our first group of kindergarten graduates than for all SIS students to join together to ensure the future of the generation that follows,” said Silverthorne. “We dedicate this achievement to them and the much-needed funds raised will help them develop and flourish into a school that nurtures many more students in future.”

“Any whole school event is great for pulling our school community together, but this event will be particularly beneficial, because it resonates so well with so many of our school values,” said Fran Crouch, SIS’ ‘Making a Difference’ Coordinator. “Doing Jumping Jacks is also a great way of going back to our own childhoods – it suits the age group of the children we are supporting.”

ICM is grateful to have such creative and energetic supporters!