TOPEKA, Kan.–Azura Credit Union is looking to set a Guinness Book of World Records’ record for the “world’s largest paper box.”
A box-shaped May Day basket that’s 12 feet, nine inches tall has been unveiled by the $472-million Azura CU, which said the London-based Guinness Book of World Records has tentatively agreed to create that world record category — which previously hasn’t existed — at Azura’s request.
“After talks with the Guinness Book of World Records and now that this idea has come to fruition, we are officially submitting our entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for the world’s largest May Day basket, with our request for a new category of ‘world’s largest paper basket’,” Allyson Shove, the credit union’s vice president of marketing, said during a press conference inside the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, where the giant basket created by students and faculty at the Washburn Institute of Technology, is resting.
According to Shove, the creation of the large basket inspired Azura employees to build May Day baskets of their own, which have varying designs and have been set up at the credit union’s 10 branches.
The 50,000-member CU is encouraging the public to fill the baskets by donating non-perishable food items such as canned food, cereal, peanut butter, pasta and rice. The food will go to Harvesters — The Community Food Network.
Azura has also joined with Shawnee County Parks and Recreation to provide a “May Day Gift for the Community” by arranging for the public — in honor of first anniversary of Azura’s name change — to receive vehicle access from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday of this week to the top of Skyline Park at Burnett’s Mound, the city’s highest point.
The credit union represents a merger between Educational Credit Union and Quest Credit Union,