After Guinness denial, city lands ‘Academy’ record

“We think that’s exciting because it’s a 50-year company that has a lot of sports people associated with it, media people, different groups and organizations and they work to find very specialized groups to award this to,” said Robbie Bettis, one of the key organizers of Hoschton’s world record attempt.

Tom Howard of the World Records Academy said the company has the world’s largest database of attempted world records. Once Hoschton announced its world record attempt, the company started watching its progress.

“It was a nice community event, it involved a lot of hard work, local people took it seriously and did a great job — this is why it was selected to be published so fast,” Howard wrote on Monday.

Just a few weeks ago, Hoschton learned that it didn’t earn a Guinness World Record — based largely on a technicality. The London office differed on the definition of “location” and said a zip code isn’t a location.

“Everybody likes to announce they will have a Guinness record — your town included,” Howard wrote. “We know from the beginning that you will get a rejection because in 90 percent of cases they do. Guinness adores to spot small (insignificant) mistakes and turn you down — to make you call them next time for a very expensive adjudication. In my personal opinion, this is not world records adjudication, it’s a scam.”

Howard said after Guinness denied Hoschton a world record, the World Records Academy also took a second look at the attempt.

“From a legal point of view (and common sense, also) a record like [Hoschton’s] has to be made on a large area, around the whole city,” Howard wrote. “[The] same zip code counts as a location — this is our decision. We don’t want to have thousands of scarecrows stored like in a depot, we want the whole city to participate in such an event and enjoy it.”

Bettis said on Monday that a committee hasn’t decided if the city will appeal Guinness’s decision.

A subcommittee of the Hoschton Fall Festival committee will discuss an appeal in mid-January, while the full committee will meet later in the month, she said.

Committee members still want to hear from citizens if Hoschton should attempt another world record next year, or any other suggestions for the scarecrows, Bettis said.

Hoschton’s world record will be honored on a full-page in 2009 book of the World Records Academy, which goes on sale in January. The Guinness World Records only publishes a selection of world record titles, Howard wrote.

The city will also be recognized on the company’s website — www.worldrecordsacademy.org.

This Saturday, the fall festival committee will host a bonfire of the scarecrows, starting at 5 p.m. The event will be held at the Kenerly farm, located at 1688 Ga. Hwy. 53.

Bettis said she expects a fun atmosphere at the controlled burn, which will be monitored by the West Jackson Fire Department.

“It’s something new and different for our little town,” she said.

Those with scarecrows in Hoschton are asked to bring them to the bonfire. Hot chocolate and marshmallows will be provided.