October 13th 2012 was a historical day for the YMCA movement.
More than 80 countries took part in the YMCA World Challenge, mobilizing millions of people in close to 1,000 local events on all continents.
The YMCA Family celebrated our work on empowering youth and transforming communities by inviting the general public for a day of fun and joy with a lot of creativity.
As a common element, in all events, people were invited to shoot basketballs and help the YMCA to set a world record to be analyzed by the Guinness Book of Records in the months to come.
From Canada to Australia, Ghana to Brazil, YMCAs all over the world found the most creative ways to engage local citizens in a global activity.
By October 15th , more than 2,500 pictures were sent to the innovative Y-Photo platform which had been specially created for the YMCA World Challenge and much more is yet to come.
In Iceland, YMCA young leaders were mobilizing people in places such as supermarkets. In Russia even a bride shot a ball into a hoop, interrupting her own wedding celebration to participate. In the Philippines and India, mobile basketballs went out to the streets in special vehicles. In Kenya, workshops for capacity building were organized and in Chile, Star Wars Characters participated in the promotion of the event. The examples are endless!
There is much to be told about the YMCA World Challenge. Thousands of different stories will be shared over and over about what the YMCA has done on that day.
The verification process has already started and will take few months to be completed. The World Alliance o YMCAs will release preliminary results from each country as the YMCA national offices provide the information.
In January 2013, the Guinness Book of Records will receive the full documentation for verification and consideration of the establishment of a new world record.
If you want to know more about the challenge, visit the special website dedicated to the YMCA World Challenge
All the photos of the Challenge can be found on our YMCA World Challenge Photostream