Fayetteville hosted a record-setting, international event last weekend as it unveiled the world’s largest Christmas stocking. Chris Thomas has this.
It was an enviable collaboration – spanning 50 states and three countries; measuring 1.6 tons and 7,700-square-feet.
All to create one big stocking.
On Veterans Day 2014, Spinirite LP – parent company of Washington, North Carolina based Caron United – announced it wanted to make the world’s largest Christmas stocking. Collaborating with the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation.
On Dec. 12, at an unveiling ceremony at Arnette Park in Fayetteville, that goal was publically realized in front of thousands of people who came in from all over the nation.
One of those people is Kimberly Chamberlin, who remembered parking on the opposite side of the park from the stocking’s resting place.
Chamberlin is finance director for the Jacksonville, Florida based foundation.
“…but I saw the stocking and I said…’I got to walk all the way over there to the other side of the stocking.’ I mean, that’s how big, how football field like that it was.”
The foundation assists families who have lost service member parents to death, funding college educations for their children.
Chamberlin is the daughter of a Korean War veteran and though her father returned from the 3 year conflict, she wanted to reach out to those who – year after year – have an empty place at their table Christmas day.
“It’s been, for the some of the students that I talked to…10-12 years. The days – the Christmas holidays, their birthdays, Veterans Day, Memorial Day – those still bring back all those memories…as if they were yesterday for them, and it’s still very fresh.”
It was a major effort – requiring the assistance of sewers and knitters from each state in the union and four Canadian provinces. The stocking became a transatlantic operation when a swatch came in from Ireland.
All in all, more than 800 people participated in this project, including three sewers who spent 40 days putting it all together in Little Washington.
One swatch in particular stood out to Chamberlin.
“Someone actually took our logo, the Children of Fallen Patriots logo, and embroidered that when they knitted it, and so, it was kind of in the middle and you could see it and it looked nice.”
15 cents from each yarn purchase went to the foundation and more than $100,000 was raised for its cause.
After the 1,100, 3-by-3 foot swatches were collected, they were sewn together in the Caron factory in Little Washington. On Dec. 8, after the stocking was measured, an official from Guinness World Records presented a certificate, cementing its place – for now, at least – as the world’s largest Christmas stocking.
When it was put together, it created a colorful, 139 by 74-and-a-half foot stocking that would have to be hung from a chimney the size of Macy’s Herald Square in New York City.
Christa Baker, a spokesperson for Spinirite – and another event attendee – was amazed by the level of participation the event inspired and the reception it received.
“To see the people’s faces light up, to see people enjoy the stocking, there was a lot of moments where people would just walk up and be speechless and they would just look and to be able to experience that moment was very special to me.”
Baker, based in Toronto, said working with the foundation allowed her to meet with families affected by the costliest factor of warfare – human life.
“To see them given the opportunity for a future is really important.”
This isn’t the first time Eastern North Carolina made its way into the record books. In 2010, Tommy Moore of Moore’s Barbecue in New Bern smiled for the cameras in front of the world’s largest, open faced sandwich – a pulled pork sandwich weighing more than a ton. In 2013, Ben Shaw made his way back onto shore after completing a record setting, 29 hour and 10 minute, surf marathon on Kure Beach.
The unveiling of the stocking has ended, though, and soon, it will be disassembled.
But, its legacy may just be starting. Each 3x3 swatch will be donated to military hospitals around the nation, like those found on Fort Bragg and aboard Camp Lejeune.
“It wasn’t all…just about the stocking, it was about what the stocking meant and it means a lot of things to a lot of different people, but in the end, it means all good things –all good cheer, all the things you should have around the holidays.”
They will become blankets just large enough to swaddle newborns, made with material that will help pay for a child’s education.