Colfax man sets Guinness World Record for largest pencil collection
Aaron Bartholmey, of Colfax, invited the community to look at his pencil collection as he counted every single one over the summer.
At the time, the Guinness World Record for such a collection sat around 24,000 items.
"Numbers-wise, I knew I could beat the record," Bartholmey said. But he needed to sit down and get an accurate count.
That time and effort paid off — Bartholmey can now officially call himself owner of the .
"It was a lot of work put into getting that event together and doing the whole count. So it's really exciting," Bartholmey said.
The collection of 69,255 pencils includes everything from local business advertisements, a 100-year-old pencil, and even one with a high school basketball schedule. In July, counters from the American Pencil Collectors Society counted the pencils. Then, Bartholmey submitted the proposal to the Guinness World Records. Three months later, the record was certified.
"Guinness has pretty strict rules. And so it was really exciting when I found out that everything went through and that it had been made official. That was awesome," Bartholmey said.
While Bartholmey's collection rewrote the record books, he says he's already on the hunt for more. The childhood hobby that started after a flea market visit with his grandpa turned into one for the recordbooks.
'It’s pretty unbelievable to know I hold that title and officially have the largest collection in the world!' Bartholmey wrote in a statement.
