On Saturday, April 6, people from around Arkansas attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the longest line of moving wheelchairs.
This was all held for 13-year-old Skylar Overman who has been in a wheelchair all her life.
The world record wasn’t broken, but the people who attended said so much was gained.
“She is an amazing little girl who has fought her entire life,” her mother Lindsey Overman said.
Skylar was born with schizencephaly, a rare neurological birth defect, and she has limited physical abilities.
For the second time, she’s been placed in hospice care.
“The first time she was in hospice, we did a bucket list for her. And we were just trying to think of all these things she could do and experience and one of the things was to break a world record and I thought ‘how awesome would that be?’” Overman said.
Overman decided to attempt to beat the record for the longest line of moving wheelchairs, which is set at 351.
After sharing her mission, dozens of people met at the University of Central Arkansas for the attempt.
Unfortunately, they were only able to get 80 people in a line, but all was not lost. “We’ll try again for sure,” Overman said.
Another goal of this event was to show people with disabilities that they are not alone.
“Everybody needs help. But as a disabled person, having a community is even more important because there’s so much more power with numbers. So, whenever we get together we get ideas on how to do things differently and we get ideas on how to do things better and more efficiently,” Kesha Pilot said.
The event brought together people of all abilities, which was an important part of the day.
“They deal with so many hardships anyways and so to come here and to support us it’s amazing.
There’s nothing different between us and them, it’s just how we get around,” Overman said.
The participants look forward to coming together again in hopes of breaking the record.
“Coming to stuff like this and saying ‘Oh I want to help bless somebody else but that is not the case at all. These families who have children or adults who have wheelchairs, they actually end up blessing you, enriching your lives in more ways than you could know,” volunteer Amber Neumeier said.
They plan to hold the event again for Skylar sometime next year.
Anyone can participate, you just need a wheelchair.