BELAGAVI
Thousands of past pupils, including many from Goa, from St Paul's high school at Belagavi created history on Saturday by breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest school reunion in the world.
A whopping 3,638 past pupils assembled at the school for its 160th celebrations and in the process, broke the world record of 3,299 students previously held by Stadium School of Washington-USA in 2006. The St Paul's record will now be entered in the Guinness book of world records.
The process of registration commenced from 9 am on Saturday, with several Goan ex-students arriving in Belagavi to be the part of historic event.
“Alumni from the batch of 1948 were present as well. It was a place for rejoicing and meeting old school friends. The event that was organised to mark the glorious accomplishment of the school completing 160 years has gathered historic relevance,” said Manoj Michael, president of Paulites Belagavi Worldwide (PBW).
“The alumni were all set out to repay its alma-mater by setting a world record for the highest number of ex-students attending a school reunion,” Conrad Gonsalves, an ex-student, told The Goan.
The previous record of 3,299 was held for 10 years by Stadium School of Washington, despite several attempts by various other institutes around the world to break it.
The independent adjudicators of the events, who were professional chartered accountants, verified the number of alumni present and the final declaration was made at around 8 pm on Saturday, much to the jubilation of the past pupils gathered at the event.
