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LEHI — A Lehi company plans to build the world's largest blanket fort on Thursday, and in doing so help a Utah boy with cancer set a Guinness World Record.
Tacos Together, a networking organization based in Lehi, has partnered with Real Salt Lake and Make-A-Wish Utah to collect donated blankets to be built into a fort. A 5-year-old boy who is battling leukemia will place the final piece of the fort Thursday afternoon at GYVR hub, 1657 N. State.
After the fort is complete, all of the blankets will be donated to local shelters for people experiencing homelessness in Utah, according to Paul Shin, CEO of Tacos Together.
Shin said the idea originally came from his 7-year-old daughter, who wanted a blanket that was big enough to fit the entire family under during family movie nights. From there, Shin said, he recruited some friends to help, and the idea eventually morphed into setting a world record.
"Honestly, I have a bad habit of jumping into things and then thinking, 'Crap, how are we going to do this?'" he said. "After we told the world we were going to do it, then we had to figure out how to do it. And luckily, good people came together and it happened."
Shin then posted about his plan to break the record on his LinkedIn account, where it was noticed by a Make-A-Wish Utah representative, who reached out to him about the 5-year-old's wish to break a world record.
"Knowing we can be a part of his experience means a lot to me, too," Shin said.
The group has been working with a third party who will observe the construction of the blanket fort and present the results to Guinness, along with video evidence for certification.
Guinness is strict about certifying results of world records, Shin said, but he isn't concerned.
The current record for the largest blanket fort was set in Portland, Oregon, in December 2018. Portland's blanket fort covered nearly 6,800 square feet, according to Guinness.
"We're sitting at 10,000 (square feet) right now," Shin said. "So, unless there's some issue that is unforeseen, we feel pretty comfortable that we'll be able to hit that."
Although he expects the fort to be completed Thursday afternoon, Shin said the certification process can take up to five business days, so official results may not be available until late next week.
Contributing: Karah Brackin
