USM students create new record with giant 'heart' formation

A group of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) students today made their mark in the Malaysia Book of Records (MBR) for successfully creating a giant heart-shaped formation using 4,000 umbrellas.

MBR special officer Nurasyikin Ramli said the success was a new record recognised by MBR based on the size of the formation – 75 metres long and 60 metres wide.

"USM today created a new Malaysian record, that is a heart-shaped formation using umbrellas, in collaboration with Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Berhad. Congratulations to USM for the effort," she said when met.

The 'Biggest Heart Formation' project, themed 'love and affection', was participated by almost 200 volunteers with the umbrella used as the main symbol.

Meanwhile, project director Tan Kar Yap said while the act of sharing umbrellas was seen as common, the project gave a deeper meaning to the students when they learn the importance of sharing while instilling a sense of love and affection towards people.

"Today's programme was aimed to 'share the love'. Like sharing an umbrella, it may seem like a simple act but the impact goes a long way.

"Besides allowing the students to adapt with the concept of sharing, this programme also serves as a platform to 'test' the level of honesty among them," said Tan.

A project volunteer, Kho Ying Han, said strong wind was among the challenges they had to endure in their effort to make the programme a success.

"It was difficult as we were doing the formation in an open area. But we managed to tackle the problem by putting our heads together and tied the umbrellas together to stop it from flying away.

"We learned a lot from this programme, among which is that both things and people are stronger when together. We also hope that we can spread the message of 'sharing is caring' to other communities," Kho said.

The programme which began at 9.30am and ended at noon was a collaboration between USM and Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Berhad which sponsored the umbrellas used to create the giant formation.