University of Maryland, College Park junior Cody Waldron was excited at the opportunity to be a part of a Guinness world record and came – pillow in hand – to McKeldin Mall at the UM campus Friday to do his part.Waldron was one of 1,780 people to participate in the UM Senior Council's attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Record's record for largest pillow fight.
"That's something everyone reads and something everyone knows about so it's pretty cool," said Waldron, a physical education major. "It's good, clean, safe fun."
While the pillow fight fell short of the world record of 3,706 set in November 2008 by the British Broadcast Corp., event coordinators called the pillow fight a success, as the council raised funds for Dream Village Inc., a New York-based nonprofit organization which publishes children's books.
"I thought it went great," said Bronwyn Glynn, a member of the UM Senior Council in charge of marketing the event. "I was very happy. It would have been awesome to break the record but it was a lot of fun."
Glynn said the event raised $6,000.
The event was the brainchild of Shawn Malhotra, an economics major and co-chairman of the senior council. The senior council paid for the $5,000 event through grants and donations from the Student Government Association, UM fraternities and sororities, Dream Village, Pepsi and Warner Brothers Entertainment.
The council raffled off tickets to Warner Brothers' premiere of "The Ghost of Girlfriends Past" in Washington, D.C., VIP passes to the 18th Street Lounge donated by Pepsi and the grand prize winner of the raffle got to be a character in a Dream Village book.
The event also featured performances by The UM Juggling Group, student a capella group "Treblemakers" and hip-hop dance group "Phunctions."
"It's been a lot of fun and it's been about a year and a half of my brainchild developing," Malhotra said. "It's cool to see something we've been working on for so long actually happening."
Glynn said the council spent a lot of time securing the mall, notifying Guinness, getting UM police on board, securing funding and donations and publicizing.
Glynn said she enjoyed watching over the pillow fight from the stage.
"It was really neat to look out over the mall to see everyone out there with their pillows," she said. "In the end, when we all threw our pillows in the air, it was really cool."
Waldron said he was glad they tied the event into a fundraiser.
"I'll make sure to give something back," he said. "They're putting this on and it's the least we can do."
However, some students were out there just for the pillow fight.
"I'm just here to swing a pillow," freshman Nicole Beck said. "I was kind of hoping [UM President Dan] Mote would be out here."
