What to know
- A group of Toronto friends is organizing a massive hide-and-seek game on Centre Island on Aug. 8, aiming to gather 1,500 participants and break the previous 12-year-old Guinness World Record of 1,437 players.
- The event was inspired by a successful university hide-and-seek game and is designed to bring back a sense of childhood fun and “whimsy” for adults.
- Participants will pay $5 to join, with organizers hoping to raise at least $10,000 for Children’s Breakfast Clubs of Canada through registrations and corporate sponsorships.
- The event has already generated strong online buzz, with thousands of social media shares and hundreds of sign-ups, and organizers hope to make it an annual Toronto tradition regardless of whether the record is broken.
Torontonians may be able to break a world record this August, as a group of friends plans a massive game of hide-and-seek in support of a children’s charity.
In just a week, the Instagram account @torontohidenseek had gained over 600 followers, as its creators, Elijah Deryaw, Ahnaf Khan, and Nicole Sun plan to host the biggest hide and seek game that the city, and ideally the world, has ever seen.
“We want to make the world so much more whimsical,” Deryaw explained to Now Toronto. “We did the same thing, actually, on our university campus. We put up a bunch of posters just saying ‘Hey, if anyone wants to play hide and seek on Saturday, come show up,’ And we had… 170 signups. It was this huge, big thing, and it went very, very well.”
Deryaw added that the trio only saw opportunity from their initial plan’s success.
“We were like, ‘Oh my goodness, the next step is: can we make this world record?’”
The three friends are hoping to gather around 1,500 participants, with plans to beat the previous world record, which has held strong for 12 years thus far.
The 2014 record was beaten by Long Yang Chengdu Textile City and Chengdu Sky Sports Culture Communication Co. Ltd., who gathered around 1437 people on January 1.
Why hide-and-seek?
As the three hosts continue to try to create “whimsical” environments, Deryaw said choosing to have a hide-and-seek event was a no-brainer.
“When we were younger, we used to play hide and seek all the time. That was my favorite game on the playground. And then we became adults, and you don’t really get the chance to do it,” he explained.
Deryaw added it’s important to keep this child-like wonder alive.
“We kind of hold [a] responsibility [to] ourselves. We have to make these fun things happen as adults.”
Making it a charitable event
Deryaw said he hopes to break the world record, but his group also wanted to take it a step further as well.
“We’re hoping to raise $10,000,” Deryaw said.
The cost to participate in the massive game would be $5, and if 1,500 people exactly participate, the trio would have made $7,500, with the money raised going toward the Children’s Breakfast Clubs of Canada, which provides hot meals for kids every morning before school.
Additionally, the trio is looking for extra funding for the charity.
“[We want to] start from there, and then if more people are willing to support, we’re reaching out to company sponsors as well to see if they’re willing to do some big number, and we can give them receipts for it,” Deryaw said.
The Children’s Breakfast Clubs of Canada currently serves over 10,000 meals per week in more than 40 communities across Southern Ontario. The non-profit puts 87 cents of every dollar donated toward its essential feeding programs.
“That’s a charity I’ve seen impact my own community, and… if we’re gonna bring 1,500 people together, why not have 1,500 people also make such an impact in so many more lives?” Deryaw added.
Online reaction
Deryaw said the online response has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The reaction’s been much bigger so far than we thought it was going to be,” he admitted. “I think we had 7,800 shares on the first post we did, and the sign-up is just going up by the second.”
The first post garnered over 2,000 likes and more than 100 comments, with people outside the city also joining the conversation.
“Should I fly out from Regina or what?” one Instagram user said.
“In Vancouver when?” another Instagram user asked.
Many commenters also said they were planning to join in on the festivities. The reaction had the trio hoping they’ll be able to gain a couple of hundred signatures within the first week or so, keeping them on track for their 1,500 goal.
Whether or not Deryaw, Khan, and Sun break the world record or not, they plan on continuing to create fun events around the city for Torontonians to enjoy, with the possibility of the massive hide-and-seek game becoming an annual event.
“If we break the record, even if you don’t break the record, [Sun] and I are always running all sorts of fun events, so chances are you’ll just see another one show up on Instagram.
The world record attempt will take place on Aug. 8 at 1 p.m. on Toronto’s Centre Island. Anyone looking to register to play is welcome to do so through the group’s sign-up page.
