We all have a few rubber bands laying around the house and they can be very handy when you need to bundle a few items together. But, what if you wanted to take it a step further? What if you wanted to create a giant ball of rubber bands and attempt to set the world record for the biggest one? This is exactly what the three girls from Melbourne are doing with the help of Bounce Rubber Bands.
School-aged friends Bonny Becherer, Rhyan Bradley and Kate Johnson are well on their way to breaking the world record for the largest rubber band ball. The girls, along with their teacher and parents, are using rubber bands donated by OfficeMax in the hope that they can create a rubber band ball that is the size of a minivan.
It is a daunting task, as the current record-holder is held by Joel Waul of Florida who spent four years creating a rubber band ball that was 6 feet 7 inches high and weighed over 4,097 kilograms (or 9,032 pounds). He named it “Megaton” and now it lives permanently in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum in Orlando.
Locally, Mike Gutierrez, manager of Tuggey’s Hardware on 24th street in Noe Valley, has been working on his own rubber band ball for the last six months. He is aiming for the Guinness record, too, and his big bouncy girl is called Rubberta. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by and say hi to Rubberta. And bring a few extra rubber bands with you – she could use them.
