As dozens of sweaters piled higher and higher around his small frame, 7-year-old Skyler Rozell-Whitaker smiled through the layers while spectators chanted his name inside Monroeville Public Library.
Moments later, the Monroeville boy pulled on sweater No. 47, breaking the Guinness World Record. Then he kept going.
Skyler, who just finished second grade at Ramsey Elementary School, first set out to beat a Guinness World Record about a year ago, a feat he finally conquered June 1 after some hiccups along the way.
After becoming invested in Guinness World Records books, Skyler became determined to become a record holder himself. After casual attempts to break the “Fastest time to assemble Mr. Potato Head (4.63 seconds, if you’re curious),” stumped them, him and his mother, Patty Whitaker, looked for a challenge they could more feasibly achieve.
Finally, they settled on breaking the “Most jumpers/sweaters worn at once” record, which currently sat at 46, a record held by Hanmisha Voddineni, according to the Guinness World Record website. A record that wasn’t as easy as it seemed, not because of the claustrophobic heat one might imagine from 47 sweaters but because of how the attempt was submitted, causing Skyler and Whitaker to have to do the whole ordeal all over again.
The process to break or set a Guinness World Record is lengthy, according to Whitaker. The record breaking has to be done in a public place, filmed, with two witnesses giving statements. All the sweaters used had to be commercially available, and they couldn’t have any buttons or zippers on them. Whitaker had to make a spreadsheet for all of the sweaters they acquired, and she numbered them all to stay organized on the big day.
The first location Whitaker thought of for Skyler’s record was the Monroeville Public Library, and when she reached out to them, they were happy to hold the event.
Children’s librarian Catriona Kirk was thrilled to host the world record attempt May 16. The library even held a larger event around it, allowing others in attendance to try their luck at breaking a record, too.
“People could see how many jumping jacks they could do in a minute or there’s another record for how fast you can set up a chessboard, things like that, so we had all those activities out, and then Skyler was the main event,” Kirk said.
Originally, Skyler set his target high, with a goal of 100 sweaters worn at once. The library held a small sweater drive trying to collect sweaters for Skyler’s plan, but ultimately, Whitaker found luck in clearance sections selling discounted sweaters as the winter months warmed up. She ended up getting all the sweaters they needed for just $276.
The goal did not stay at 100 for long though. Before the first test run, the goal became 85, then 60, and finally, when the big day came, Skyler set his sights on a much more manageable 50 sweaters as his goal.
He made it past 47, breaking the record and continued all the way to 50 to set the new record. However, bad news came from Guinness World Records two weeks later. After Whitaker sent over the video, she was informed they needed to not only film the sweaters being put on, but the process of them being removed as well.
“I told him what happened. I told him that they said it didn’t count the way that we did it. I said we can walk away. Everybody had fun, I’m proud of you either way. And he’s like, ‘No, I want it,’ ” Whitaker said.
So on Monday night, June 1, they went back to the library, and with two witnesses, they broke the record again. Whitaker said she submitted the new video and expects to hear back next week.
With the second chance opportunity, Whitaker noted a significant drop in time for the whole process. With the audience at the library May 16, Whitaker said Skyler really took his time “hamming it up” for the crowd. It took about an hour and 15 minutes just to get the sweaters on the first time, but on June 1, to get them on and off, it only took an hour total.
Now that they have completed the endeavor, Skyler and Whitaker are donating the sweaters back to the library, and they will be distributed in the fall.
“We were really excited to participate, and we were thrilled that they thought to reach out to the library. It feels good that people think of the library for these things, and we’re proud of Skyler for doing it,” Kirk said.
With one world record on its way to Skyler (hopefully), he’s already looking forward to breaking another one. He got his mom signed up for a couple, including most scarves worn in a minute and most headbands worn at once.
Skyler also has his eyes set on breaking another record with his friend: “Most Christmas crackers pulled in one minute by a team of two,” but they will have to wait until the holiday season before their training can begin.
“I wanna keep doing records ’cause I want to see how it feels to have world records,” Skyler said.