Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Apr 17/02) - More than 300 students in Rankin Inlet had the opportunity this past week to take part in a Canada-wide event that landed a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Students at Maani Ulujuk middle school and Leo Ussak elementary joined more than 900 schools across Canada in doing eight minutes worth of the hokey-pokey.

The event was held to celebrate World Health Day.

The more than 250,000 students who signed up for the event smashed the previous record of 6,748 held by a group of Irish students.

Leo Ussak principal Cheryl Forbes said her staff and students jumped at the chance to participate in the event when she approached them with the idea.

Forbes went around and spoke to each class before the big day, ensuring the students were up for the challenge and understood the reasons for holding the event.

"We're a fairly active school anyway and we're always up to taking part in special events such as this one when they come along," said Forbes.

"We had 230 kids take part in the event. A number of our kindergarten students had their parents show up to take part in the event and that made the whole thing that much more special."

The students had to perform the hokey-pokey for eight full minutes.

The school was given a number of different ways to do the dance to keep the kids interested. The students did the dance fast, slow, while jogging on the spot, to a whisper, humming and silently among others.

Forbes said the school also took advantage of the event to stage another worthwhile fundraiser.

The school held a special luncheon after the hokey-pokey dance was completed.

Students were given the choice of bringing their own lunches or buying hot dogs.

"We're going to send the proceeds from our special luncheon to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. The kids seemed to enjoy staying for lunch as much as they did doing the actual hokey-pokey."