March 29, 2017, marked a day that will go down in Guinness World Record history, and PYA (Pershing Yoakley & Associates, P.C.), serving as the official CPA firm, was on hand to help document the momentous occasion. Today Show weatherman Al Roker took his live broadcast on the road during “Rokerthon 3,” visiting “Big Orange Country” at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UT), to record the creation of the largest human letter. The event was part of Roker’s annual road tour, where he travels coast to coast as groups try to break world records.
PYA Managing Principal of Audit and Assurance Services Mike Shamblin and Audit Director Matthew Rekers served as designated CPAs to independently verify the head count at the event. Public accounting firms are often called upon to serve in an official capacity to independently verify the results for televised award ceremonies (e.g., Academy Awards, Emmys, etc.), lottery and other drawings, financials, and other records.
The UT event involved the construction of a 4000+ person “Power T” formation on the field of Neyland Stadium. When all was said and done, more than 4,200 UT students, alumni, faculty, staff, and UT head football coach Butch Jones turned out at daybreak to “fill in” the Power T, which an engineering professor had designed and optimized using a computer-aided drawing.
And the verdict? They did it, topping the current Guinness World Record by more than 800 people! The former record was held by Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, which earned the distinction with 3,373 participants in September 2016.
In its more than three decades of providing professional services, from management consulting to accounting, PYA was pleased and honored to have been a part of this momentous occasion.
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