LAYTON -- Heike Schuette hasn't played Red Light/Green Light since she was a little girl in Germany. The chance to play the game again and participate in setting a world record brought the North Ogden resident to the Weber State University's Davis campus on Saturday.
Exactly 100 people from cities along the Wasatch Front came to help set an original Guinness World Record for the largest game of Red Light/Green Light.
Event organizer Calli Seneff, who serves as secretary of the WSU Davis Student Council, said she had hoped ads and bulletins all over campus and throughout the community would attract at least 300 participants.
While the turnout was lower than expected, the game was still successful, as the goal was to set, not break, a record.
Seneff first got the world record idea from her Spanish teacher, Alan Baggaley.
"I originally wanted to have the largest game of Duck, Duck, Goose, but the record for participants with that game was in the thousands. That's when I got the idea to set our own record playing Red Light/Green Light instead," she said.
Seneff, a high school senior, recent early college graduate and Clinton resident, attends the Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering and Science located at the WSU Davis Campus.
Last year, she began filling out the online application to set the record. Along with her acceptance letter from Guinness, she received pages of the rules and guidelines required to officially set the record.
Layton Mayor Steve Curtis and Police Chief Terry Keefe served as witnesses to help substantiate the claim Seneff will be sending to the Guinness office in London.
Curtis said the game brought back a lot of great childhood memories.
"I had a lot of fun playing Red Light/Green Light as a kid in Bountiful. It's a privilege to be here," he said.
"There's still a little boy in me who's always ready for fun."
When Syracuse resident Thomas Pounds first heard the playground game would be held on campus, he thought it sounded a bit cheesy. But when he heard it was all about trying to set a world record, he decided to pass the word along.
A recent WSU graduate, Pounds attended Saturday's game with his family to watch, play and be part of the record-setting activity.
Chris Wiggins, of Garland, was the official winner of the Red Light/Green Light game. His speed and agility carried him to victory over the 99 other hopefuls.
Wiggins received a certificate and congratulatory handshakes from city officials.
Although 100 players didn't meet the group's original goal of 300, Trevor Hicks, WSU student council nontraditional director, said organizers were pleased.
"We definitely still consider this a tremendous success."
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