Earlier today, ION Television successfully broke the Guinness World Record for the Largest Moving Box at an event in Times Square to mark the premiere of the network's new original series "Durham County." The new weekly series, which debuts Monday, September 7th at 10:00 p.m., focuses on a police detective who moves back to his old home town, only to discover that his childhood nemesis lives next door and the neighborhood is rife with buried secrets.Measuring 42 ft x 16 ft x 8 ft, the epically proportioned box is big enough to contain the entire cast, and a good part of the neighborhood, of "Durham County." ION Television's new record smashes the previous cardboard box that stood 37 ft 10 in x 15 ft 1.5 in x 7 ft 7 in, manufactured by students of Aarhus Business College in Aarhus, Denmark in 2007.
Once complete, the record breaking box played host to a contest between 20 individuals who scrambled into thousands of biodegradable packing peanuts to find the winning key-chain that unlocked a door to $100,000 towards defraying home owning costs. The winner, Stephanie Kelly of Kearny, New Jersey, a single mother of two teenagers, said the money will enable her to refinance and keep her home.
"What better way for ION Television to launch its first new original series than to break a Guinness World Record?" said Eleo Hensleigh, Chief Marketing Officer, ION Media Networks. "Anyone who has ever had to pack up and move knows the feeling of wanting nothing more than one really big box to throw all their stuff into. And once we decided to do this, it just made sense to do it big and help out a family -- it's an honor to be able to help someone in need during these tough times."
"We'd like to congratulate ION Television on becoming a new Guinness World Record holder and are delighted that it has given everyone associated with the new show -- Durham County -- a nice boost before its premiere on Monday," said Carlos Martinez, official adjudicator of Guinness World Records. "It's exciting to see creativity and extraordinary ideas come to life in such a
grand scale."
Working throughout the night, the box was constructed from materials consistent with those of a standard cardboard box but on a much larger scale. By 6:00 a.m., the moving box was complete, measurements were taken and the official Guinness World Records adjudicator, Carlos Martinez was able to declare ION Television as the new holder of the Guinness World Record for The
Largest Moving Box. The record attempt culminated in a certificate presentation by Mr. Martinez. Official Guinness World Records guidelines state that structure, when fully assembled, must exceed the previous record measurements in all dimensions, and be measured by a qualified surveyor.