On Friday, April 29,  N.C. State Office of Health Promotion, in conjunction with UAB, Campus Recreation and the P.E. department will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest Zumba class.

Marianne Turnbull, the director of Health Promotions, said that this year the Office of Health Promotion’s theme has been “your health sustains you.” It involved a six part series that highlighted the Wellness Model, with the final segment concentrating on physical well-being.

“Our office feels that successful students can measure their growth as a person in developing a well-rounded and balanced lifestyle at N.C. State,” said James Byars, a graduate student in higher education administration.

“We wanted to explore new techniques and bring an innovative spin to the programming aspect of Health Promotions,” said Jennifer Moore, a senior in biological sciences, and Office of Health Promotion intern.

“Zumba has been growing in popularity and there were great resources within our own campus rec center to utilize,” Moore said.

“We thought we had an original idea, but apparently other schools have attempted [the record] or getting ready to,” said Byars.

“There is a lot of strong competition in the next few weeks from schools like Baylor University,” said Byars, “we want N.C. State to have the record. To be safe we need at least 1,200 participants.”

Because their Facebook event has 989 confirmations, the Office of Health Promotion is expecting at least 1,000 participants as of Tuesday. 

“I think the largest [Zumba class] we’ve seen is 250 people, but they have to go through the certification process so we don’t know exactly. The Guinness Book people have strict rules,” said Turnbull.

The rules include one witness for every fifty participants, paperwork filled out by the witnesses, witnesses for the witnesses, a witness of the Zumba class, a super witness with a notary and certified Zumba instructors said Turnbull.

“There has to be one official routine that everyone participants in. We have to get independent media outlets to cover the event. We have to take video and lots of pictures,” said Byars. “[We also have to have] timekeepers to manage our time of our routine.”

“There are four very energetic, talented, and certified Zumba instructors who will be leading the class on Friday, ” said Byars.

In addition, there will be a choreographed routine, a DJ and water available for all participants.

“The public and physical safety of all participants is our primary concern,” said Byars, “Campus Police and EMS are on-site to address any public safety and health-related concerns that our staff cannot handle.”

“We are following Guinness World Record guidelines and have partnered with the Carmichael Staff to implement the same safety measures you would export for any group fitness class in the gym facilities,” said Moore. “Only students dressed in appropriate work-out attire will be allowed to participate.”

The office of Health Promotion would also like everyone to wear red, black, or white to show school spirit and for photography purposes.

“It’s a spirit event,” said Turnbull, “even the mascot will be there.”

The class is being held on Lee field starting at 4:30 p.m. It is free and open to all students, faculty and staff with a valid campus I.D. Student Health Services is also paying for free parking after 3 p.m. in all west lots and the Dan Allen parking deck.

“We not only want to beat the world record, but we want to shatter it,” said Byars.