Pennsbury Prom Breaks World Record

The 2019 Pennsbury Prom has officially broken a world record.

At Tuesday’s Pennsbury High School graduation, Pennsbury High School Co-Principal Reggie Meadows announced a massive mural of kisses at the prom earlier this month has been certified by the Guinness World Records team as the largest.

The 63-foot-long, 11-foot-high 3D mural, which used 41,692 kisses, spelled out “Rock Music” to fit the theme of “Prom to the Music.” The centerpiece of the mural featured an 18-foot guitar.

Meadows said the Guinness World Records team expedited their certification of the record to make sure it happened before graduation.

The previous record for the largest mural of kisses or lip prints was set in 2012 when Brazilians pull together 13,316 kisses.

Meadows first received the pitch for the project from Pennsbury parents Gary and Amy Nolan, whose daughter Melanie was entering her senior year. Gary Nolan is a Guinness World Record holder himself after having run the fastest marathon in a Colonial American costume.

The efforts to put the project in place grew as prom approached and the Nolans led the effort to get thousands of lip prints from students, parents, alumni, teachers, administrators, and community members.

“We are delighted that the Pennsbury community embraced the work involved with earning this World Record! This project would never have come to fruition without countless hours of volunteers working in various aspects of the mural. We had several parents who each made thousands of lipstick prints. We had others who counted and glued the prints. And, of course, the students rallied behind the mural and worked hard to complete it in time for the prom. It’s the traditions and community that combine to make something as special as the prom and a Guinness World Record. That sense of pride in tradition is why community members, parents, bus drivers, teachers, and yes, students, all get together to create something they can be proud of,” the Nolans said in a released statement.

The mural of kisses was created by students led by Pennsbury Prom Co-Chairs Mollie Nellist and Savannah Fuhrmann with assistance from Prom Co-Chair Angelica Ramirez. Faculty advisors for the 2019 Pennsbury Prom Tony Napoli and Curtis May oversaw the project.

The Guinness World Records team required numerous documents and proof of the project. Shivani Patel, a senior media production student, played a major role in counting the kisses and recording a video to send to Guinness World Records.

Pennsbury parent Patrick Gilbride played a major role in receiving donations of lipstick for the murals from the Estee Lauder and Smashbox cosmetics firms.

“Students and community members created the kiss prints during sporting events, special school events, prom committee meetings, and in their own homes. The kiss prints were bundled into groups of 50, then bagged into packs of 100 and stored, ready to be glued,” Pennsbury officials said.

The design of the mural was approved by the Guinness World Records team in November 2018 and collection of the kisses ran from February to May.