Students set Guiness Book of World Records reading record

MILWAUKEE -- The U.S. Cellular Arena was filled with kids Tuesday, as well as a few celebrities, and it was all an effort to set a world record. That record is for the most children reading together with an adult.

Green Bay Packers receiver Ryan Grant, and Milwaukee Brewers' Craig Counsell were on hand to read with the students, as well as Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Betsy Brenner, president and publisher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The current Guiness Book of World Records for "the most children reading together with an adult," is 4,222 children, and was achieved in September of 2011 in Nigeria. Tuesday, kids in Milwaukee beat that record, with 4,586 children participating in the event. "All children love the Guiness Book of World Records. They love reading about it, and now they can stake their claim it in," one organizer said.

"They were having fun with it. Even the Dr. Seuss I knew! That was the book I was reading along with," Packers' Grant said.

Tuesday's event was a kick off celebration for Milwaukee's WinterFest, which starts Wednesday and runs for 10 days at the Frontier Airlines Center.