Kan. town hopes pennies saved are records earned

[July 11, 2008]  FORT SCOTT, Kan. (AP) -- Hundreds of people in Kansas are hoping their pennies go a long way.

Residents of Fort Scott, just west of the Missouri line, are spending the week trying to break two world records: the longest line of pennies and assembling a mile of pennies in the fastest time.

Members of the Fort Scott Youth Activities Teams and hundreds of volunteers are trying to create a 40-mile chain of pennies -- nearly 4 million -- in the parking lot of Fort Scott Middle School. The effort started Tuesday and will be judged by Guinness World Records on Friday.

The record for laying the fastest mile of pennies is 2 hours, 24 minutes, 15 seconds, set in February by teachers and pupils in the United Kingdom, said Kaoru Ishikawa, a records manager with Guinness.

The mark for the longest line of pennies is 34.57 miles, set Aug. 6, 1995, in Malaysia.

The stunt is part of an effort to raise money for about $4 million in improvements at Ellis Park in Fort Scott.

[Associated Press]

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