Some of the 3480 golf carts registered for the Golf Cart Charity Challenge Parade make their way along the route toward Market Square at Lake Sumter Landing in The Villages. Bill Mitchell / Daily Sun

Villages sets record for World’s Largest Golf Cart Parade

By GLENDA SANDERS, DAILY SUN

THE VILLAGES — It’s official.

Drivers and passengers in the 3,391 golf carts that participated in The World’s Largest Golf Cart Parade Sept. 4, 2005, now share credit for setting a Guinness World Record.

Chuck Berkey, parade chairman, received a letter and certificate of authentication from the Guinness organization on March 3, congratulating The Villages community on setting the record.

The Villages Buffalo Boosters organized the parade as a fundraiser for scholarships and the annual children’s Christmas party hosted by Lady Lake Police and Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.

“We were trying to devise a way to allow everybody to get involved,” Berkey said. “I wanted to show off our Villages, how beautiful they are.”

More than $15,000 from the $5 entry fees paid by the participants was divided between those two recipients.

Another $12,500 was collected for victims of Hurricane Katrina at a donation booth set up at Sumter Landing Market Square by the Buffalo Boosters on the day of the parade.

Berkey said he had been awaiting word from the Guinness organization, possibly via e-mail, for several months, and that he was elated to find the large envelope in his mailbox.

“We had a good time and we’re proud,” Berkey said.

Berkey said Guinness receives about 65,000 inquiries a year from people and organizations hoping to set records. Approximately 4,000 records — some of long standing, others new — are selected for inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records each year.

If the World’s Largest Golf Cart Parade does not make it into the 2006 book, Berkey said, the parade will remain on the list of potential entries into the annual books as long as the record stands.

Berkey is optimistic that the parade will eventually be selected for inclusion in the book.

“It was colorful, seeing a long line of carts,” Berkey said. “There’s hardly two alike.”

Berkey plans to have the Guinness certificate framed and displayed where Villages residents can see it,

“We’ll find some place where everybody can enjoy it,” Berkey said. “It’s their record.”

“It’s wonderful,” Villages Homeowner’s Association President Doug Tharp said. “It speaks well for The Villages, again, to be a pacesetter. It’s just an honor to be included in something like this.”

Glenda Sanders is a features writer for the Daily Sun. She can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9245, or at glenda.sanders@thevillagesmedia.com.