ORLANDO, Fla. — Five-hundred smiling people from around the world gathered Friday in Orlando to set the Guinness World Record for the biggest smiley face. Coinciding with and celebrating Friday's official World Smile Day®, they formed the smiley face and stood shoulder-to-shoulder for ten minutes on the top parking deck of the new Amway Center mega arena, home to the NBA's Orlando Magic.
At 50 feet in diameter, the world's largest smiley face was nearly the size of a basketball court.
Travelers from across the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and Brazil dressed in yellow and black ponchos to participate in the gathering. Celebrity Smile Ambassadors Melissa Rycroft and Joey Fatone were part of the record-setting fun.
The Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) spent half a year searching the globe for people who had special smile stories to share as part of their World Smile Search campaign. More than 20,000 smile stories from 77 countries were collected at VisitOrlando.com/smile and the people behind some of those stories were flown in for the world-record event.
"With our world-famous theme parks and more than 100 attractions, we thought we might just be the smile capital of the world. Now, it's official," explained Gary Sain, president and CEO of the Orlando/Orange County CVB. "We have a world record and world travelers from the four corners of the globe told us that no other destination creates unique smile moments and memories like Orlando for families and friends to share for a lifetime."
During the campaign, the Orlando/Orange County CVB also raised $19,825 for the charitable organization, Smile Train (visit their site). The donations will be used to provide more than 70 cleft lip or cleft palate surgeries for children so that they can smile. Some of the children who have benefited from Smile Train's work joined the smile ambassadors from all over the world at the record-breaking event.
WFTV
