From July 22nd to July 27th, a small team of dedicated high school students toiled under the intense heat of a burning midsummer sun. Armed with nothing more than worn paintbrushes, heavy wooden stencils, and shopping carts stocked with paint and sunscreen, Ridge High School’s Legwork for Lungs team painted over four miles, or 21,120 squares, of hopscotch. The course snaked around Varsity Field, coiling up to parking lots at Ridge High School before finally finishing at the playgrounds at Cedar Hill. 

The event, called Leap for Lungs, was a way to raise money to fight lung cancer. In addition to donations, participants could purchase personalized squares of the course to dedicate to family and loved ones. Through working closely with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Legwork for Lungs has already raised well over $35,000 for Lung Cancer research. Prior to the  painting, many hours of careful planning and preparation went into making the course, members of the club had to measure out the total length of the hopscotch course, advertise the event to sponsors and volunteers, and create a “paint” consisting of water, flour, and corn starch along with some coloring that should wash off with a couple of rains.

On day one, the team painted over 2,000 hopscotch squares. Unfortunately, with dark storm clouds on the horizon, all efforts were washed away with the rain. Such a setback meant the organization had to work even harder to complete the four miles. Over the next couple of days, they doubled their efforts by adopting a more efficient painting method and switching to a heavier paint mixture which allowed them to work at a faster pace and cover more area. 

Although the day of the event was actually July 27th, the hopscotch course wasn’t completely finished. The club continued to add on to the course while numerous participants from various gyms and organizations hopped through the 3.3 miles of hopscotch that was already painted. Guinness requirements also specify that at least two individuals must hop through the entire 4-miles of hopscotch. As a result, club members Angela Huang and Nastassja Kuznetsova found themselves spending four hours hopping through the course. 

On the last day, the club had the course certified by Dan Brennan — he had measured everything from local 5K to international marathons and biked through the entirety of the course with a tracker on the wheel to find the distance. Ann Kang and Nastassja Kuznetsova, team members who oversaw the process, confirmed that the total length of the course was 4.04 miles. Over the course of 8 days, Legwork for Lungs raised over $2,000 for Lung cancer research and development by breaking the Guinness World Record for the World’s longest Hopscotch Course.