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Sep 23, 2007 7:11 am US/Eastern
Student Raises Funds Trying To Break Pogo Record
(WBZ)
A 21-year-old Lynnfield man hopes to raise money this weekend while trying to break the Guinness World Record for pogo stick jumping.
James Roumeliotis, a senior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, hopped his way toward the record mark for consecutive pogo stick jumps over a 24-hour period.
The current mark is 177,737, held by a German man. Roumeliotis, a graduate from Lynnfield High School, began jumping Saturday at the WPI Quad. His goal is to raise $5,000 for Scleroderma, a disease that affects 300,000 Americans, including a relative of one of Roumeliotis' fraternity brothers.
The funds will go to the New England chapter of the Scleroderma Foundation.
He began preparing for the event last June but first took up pogo stick jumping as a young boy. During the summer, Roumeliotis would pogo around Worcester for about 10 miles.
Guinness rules allow Roumeliotis to rest for 5 minutes per hour. As allowed, he plans to stock pile his minutes by jumping for several hours at time.
"You start to get the hang of it after awhile," he said. "For the first half hour your arms are sore but after that it goes away, so it's pretty good now."
Local bands played at the event Saturday, which was videoed so officials can be sure of an accurate jump count.
Roumeliotis has created
Bouncetoacure.com with information about his cause. Scleroderma is a disease in which the immune system attacks its own body, and can cause the hardening and thickening of the skin. In some cases it causes serious damage to internal organs including the lungs, heart, kidneys, esophagus and gastrointestinal tract.
Click here for more information about the disease.
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