Students Built The World's Largest Blanket Fort For Foster Kids
A county commissioner in Clark County, Nevada loves building blanket forts with his kids. So when he thought about what he could do for the hundreds of foster children in his community through the nonprofit Foster Kinship, the answer was obvious: build them the biggest blanket fort in the world. On May 16, that dream became a Guinness World Records title. Students from West Career and Technical Academy designed and engineered a structure spanning 14,103.2 square feet across two gymnasiums and a hallway at the Desert Breeze Community Center, larger than Fort Knox. One student named Michael led the design, creating a system of grey plastic pipes forming arching hallways and rooms, with hotel-donated sheets clamped across the top. Guinness World Records Adjudicator Sarah Casson monitored the entire build to ensure no gaps exceeded one inch. When the title was certified, the organizers had one reaction: "This is the coolest thing we have ever done!" Commissioner Justin Jones even contributed blankets his grandmother had sewn for him personally, making sure a piece of his own family became part of the record.
Then the children arrived. Hundreds of foster kids from across Clark County ran into the fort and filled it with exactly the kind of noise and joy the whole project was built to create. "This proves that we can accomplish great things when we work together," the organizers said. A group of high school students designed it. A community built it. And a room full of kids who needed a good day got one. That is a pretty good use of some pipes and bedsheets.
