TURNING OUT FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Kids and adults alike turned out last Saturday to try and break the record for the most people dressed like a butterfly.

THOMASVILLE- Last Saturday, the Vashti Center held their rescheduled attempt at breaking the world record for the most people dressed as butterflies in one place at the Ritz Amphitheater.

Alex English, Director of outreach and training, said that while she had been optimistic leading up to the event, she hadn’t been confident that it would turn out like the center had wanted.

“With it being the rescheduled reattempt and with it being summer, I was trying to be optimistic, but I knew it probably wouldn’t be the turn out the way we wanted it to be,” she said. “And honestly, more people turned out than I thought, originally.”

English said that a total of 134 people were counted for at the event, with a prior count mistakenly counting 120. While English said that it was a pretty good turnout, it was still lacking the numbers to break the current record of 367 people.

“So, there were 134 people there, which was a pretty good turnout, with us having to reschedule it and people being out of town,” English said. “We were happy with the turnout and the support that we received.”

While pleased by those willing to come out and celebrate awareness for mental health, English said that this rescheduled attempt most likely marked the end of their attempts at breaking the record.

“We are always going to continue putting on some mental health awareness month event and we’re thinking we’re going to shift away from the Guinness World Record avenue,” she said. “We’ll definitely have something fun next year that we’ll start promoting at the beginning of next year.”

English said that they do feel like it’s an end of a chapter, motivated by the strict guidelines of the world record attempts and a desire for something more inclusive.

“We do feel like it’s the end of a chapter,” English said. “There have been some barriers and some obstacles, but mostly, there is just a lot of strict guidelines that come with it and we want people to come and just be there for the awareness and the supportive part and so having to disqualify anyone from being there, when you want it to be about awareness, we want something that can be all-inclusive.”

While they never broke the record, English said that the team at the Vashti Center was grateful for the people who came out and that they hoped to continue seeing that support moving forward.

“We just want to say thank you to the community and the people who came, far and wide, to support us on Saturday despite all the obstacles,” she said. “We just want to say we hope that we see that support moving forward and we’re here to serve children and families for another 100 years.”