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Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
For Sheila Chustek, her Guinness World Record-sized collection of “Sesame Street” items started unintentionally.
In 1973, Chustek painted her Queens, New York home’s kitchen yellow and put up a few items Big Bird from “Sesame Street.”
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“I put up a few Big Birds and then I just kept getting Big Bird from people,” Chustek said while visiting the Sesame Place theme park in Middletown last week. “I guess it started accidentally”
Over the years, Chustek’s collection of “Sesame Street” memorabilia, mostly Big Bird items, ballooned to about 955 pieces, but her family insists she has more. Some items she buys, many others are gifted to her by friends and family.
Two years after Chustek retired from her job as a college mathematics professor, she began photographing and counting her collection before submitting it to the Guinness World Record office in London. In late 2014, Chustek received confirmation that she had the largest collection of “Sesame Street” items in the world.
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Inside the Chustek house in New York, a spare bedroom doubles as the homegrown Sesame Place shrine.
In return for her devotion to the brand and collection of “Sesame Street” memorabilia, Sesame Place staff invited Chustek to the theme park last week. Chustek, her husband, her three kids and their spouses and her nine grandkids were all invited to the Middletown theme park for a special day, according to Sesame Place spokesperson Dana Ryan.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
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As the afternoon sun hung overhead and families enjoyed the park, Chustek was brought up onto the stage last Friday with Big Bird and presented enough additional memorabilia to officially take her to 1,000 items in her collection. In addition, she was presented with a hand drawn portrait that was presented to her by Big Bird.
Debbie Chustek said her mother-in-law just loves Big Bird so much and she always wanted to take her whole family to Sesame Place.”
“This all started because I like the color yellow,” Shelia Chustek said while laughing.
