Villagers are being asked to participate in an upcoming effort to set a world record for the longest golf cart parade – all while supporting research into Alzheimer’s Disease.
The Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust (CART) is seeking Villagers to participate in “Carts for CART,” which will take place in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown on the morning of Saturday, March 13. The effort will attempt to break the Guinness world record for the longest golf cart parade that was set here about 16 years ago.
The event will start from a number of locations in The Villages and eventually merge into one long parade of carts, which must exceed 3,321 in order to break the current world record. The purpose is to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s Disease and to raise funds for research to help diagnose, slow progress and eventually cure the debilitating disease.
A $25 registration fee is required for each participating cart and includes a window tag and a Stop Alzheimer’s T-shirt. The registration fee can be a check made out to the Rotary Club of the Villages Foundation and mailed to Steve Leichner, P.O. Box 1291, The Villages, FL 32158. In addition, name, address, phone number and T-shirt size for 1 T-shirt per cart should be emailed to steve@psltravel.com. In order to receive your T-shirt in time for the parade, the information and funds must be received by Monday, March 1.
If you do not have email access or cannot mail the check in time, call Leichner at (877) 387-4660. For more information about CART, go to cartfund.org. For more information about The Rotary Club of The Villages, go to villagesrotary.org.
The current Guinness world record for the longest golf cart parade was set in The Villages in September 2005 through an effort sponsored by The Villages High School’s Buffalo Booster Club. At the time, the group needed to surpass the previous record of 1,138 golf carts that had been set at the Timber Pines retirement community in Spring Hill in 2004.
When the big day finally rolled around, golf carts of all shapes and sizes came from all directions to participate in the event.
Many Villagers vowed to achieve victory that day as the multitude of carts staged in a very large open area along County Road 466 in what is now the Village of Bridgeport at Laurel Valley. Excitement hung in the air as members of The Villages Buffalo Booster Club scampered about, doing their best to make sure that everything was in order as the clock ticked down to kick off the world record attempt.
Eventually the stream of golf carts stretched to more than five miles. Deep down, those participating believed the record was theirs. But as they honked their horns and waved at onlookers, it seemed like the procession of carts leaving the starting point would never end.
Some who organized the event called the golf cart procession an endless wave. Others said they weren’t surprised so many people wanted to participate. Some, like Sumter County Clerk of Circuit Court Gloria Hayward, were asked to write letters to the Guinness Book folks confirming the number of carts that had participated. And others, like area residents with cameras and local journalists, were asked to provide photographic and video evidence of the parade’s success, which was confirmed by Guinness in March 2006.
The competition for the largest golf cart parade actually started in 2002, when 191 carts participated in an event in another Florida retirement community, Sun City Center, near Tampa. The following year, those residents broke their own record with 306 carts – a mark that eventually fell to the 1,138 assembled by the Timber Pines retirement community.
Not surprisingly, The Villages – a community that prides itself on being golf cart accessible – has owned the record since September 2005. Since that time, the only real challenge came from a local group connected to the nonprofit organization Hope for the Warriors, which came up short with 3,124 carts in November 2010.
