A sweet endeavor: Local man vies for world record

Collin Gouldin was looking for something to do. He had already broken records for the longest drumroll and had beat Paula Deen’s record for the most strawberries dipped in chocolate in one minute. But he still wanted to set one more world record. This time, for the longest candy necklace.

It all started when Gouldin completed his four-hour, 10-minute and 12-second drumroll. A representative for a 501(c)3 organization called Broken Voices – an organization Gouldin had long supported – approached him and jokingly said, “Hey, next time you should include us.”

“I have been supporting them for a long time now,” Gouldin said. “Last year when they were in Dallas, they said, ''Next time you should include us.' So, starting out, I had in mind that I would be raising money for them.”

Gouldin said Broken Voices’ mission is to awaken young adults to who God made them to be. The organization travels the nation speaking to youth groups and young adults, inspiring them and helping them see how they can change the world.

“They created an 'idea farm,'” Gouldin said. “[The youth] have the ideas to change the world, and Broken Voices helps grow the ideas to reality. One example is a girl in Atlanta who wanted to help rehabilitate teen sex slaves, which is a big task. So it’s like [the youth] have the passion to do this, but the organization helps them make it a reality.”

Once Gouldin found his inspiration, his next step was to research and figure out which record he was going to make or break.

“I was searching for a new thing to do, and I knew from the start this would be a fundraising event for Broken Voices; so I had to think of something to do that would benefit the organization,” Gouldin said. “I came across a candy necklace, searched it and found nothing online. So I researched it and I thought the requirement would be maybe 100 yards – but it ended up being a kilometer, which is like 1,300 yards.”

But Gouldin didn’t shy away from the challenge and began researching even more.

“The first thing was to figure out how many beads I would need,” Gouldin said. “I went to a candy store and I measured what one bead would be, then did the math. I would need 170,000 beads. Then I called around, and my brother and I found this candy store that sold the beads.”

Gouldin called the store, Sandy Candy, and requested an order of 170,000 candy beads. The employee, whom Gouldin said sounded a little stunned, said they would have to call him back.

“That day I got a call back from David Klein, who was the inventor of the Jelly Belly and who co-owns the store,” Gouldin said. “Their main product is edible sand art, but they also do candy necklaces. They called and said, 'I think there’s 770 beads per pound,' and sent a sample size.”

After a few tests and a lot of confidence, Gouldin placed an order for 230 pounds of small candy beads.

“That was the point I realized there’s no going back,” Gouldin said. “Once you spend $600 on candy, you can’t change your mind. They shipped me an extra box, making the total weight 238 pounds.”

Once the candy arrived, Gouldin had to figure out how to string the beads, because he knew there would be no way he would have the patience or time to string them one by one.

“First had to figure out how to respectively put the beads on the string,” Gouldin said. “The final bead count was 183,701, and doing it one by one wouldn’t work.”

Gouldin and his father found a PVC pipe with an internal diameter similar to the external diameter of the beads. They thought if they dropped the beads in one by one they would self-align, making it possible to drop a strung needle through the center.

It worked.

“On the bottom of the pipe, we put a rubber washer to keep the beads from falling through and to allow the needle to fall through,” Gouldin said. “We dropped the needle through the pipe, through the beads and to the other end. So we ended up stringing the necklace one meter at a time, which still took 1,000 fills through the pipes – but it was better than doing 180,000 times.”

Gouldin assembled the necklace in 10-meter sections. When he finished, he placed each section in a 5-gallon bucket, each bucket containing 130 meters' worth of candy beads. Then, last Saturday, Gouldin assembled the necklace in a total of two hours.

“The total distance was 1141.2206 meters, which is amazingly accurate,” Gouldin said. “We had land surveyors come out and use their gear to measure it. But it was very difficult getting the beads back in the bucket after. I had a lot of help, but it’s still in my truck.”

In order to raise money for Broken Voices, Gouldin allowed people to sponsor sections of his necklace. Each meter was sold for $5 and featured a tag with the person's or organization's name on it. All proceeds from the sponsorship of the sections went to Broken Voices. In total, Gouldin raised $1,700.

Gouldin said Guinness required him to send photos, video, a notarized witness statement and press clippings. He said once he submits the information, he will have to wait six weeks until they approve the record and send his certificate.

“When you break records, you can break records the easy way that costs lots of money or the hard way that’s free, which is what I am doing,” Gouldin said. “There is a Guinness records museum in San Antonio that I am working with. I have no need for the necklace, but I don’t want to throw it away. There was a lot of time and money put into it.”

Gouldin doesn’t have any plans to compete for another world record any time soon.

“I’m taking a break,” Gouldin said. “I spent 70 hours building this necklace and months planning it. I’m done for now, but we’ll see what happens.”

For information on Broken Voices visit brokenvoices.org.

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