Fiona Firth, Sing Up Area Leader for Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes has been the driving force in the Sign2Sing challenge for National Sing Up Day.
Working in partnership with Continyou and Sign Health, they've arranged a celebration of some 700 individuals who will gather in the Stoke Mandeville Stadium, birthplace of the Paralympics, in a Big Sing party led by Fiona and Olli the Signing Monkey.
Sign Health is the only UK charity focussed on improving the mental and physical health of Deaf people. On National Sing Up Day they're aiming to beat the existing Guinness World Record of 13,418 signing singers. A staggering 91,369 participants have pledged to mirror their signed singing around the country and beyond!
At 2.45pm participants will perform the New Seekers’ hit, ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing’, which has been specially re-recorded by the band.
Fiona is very excited about the project: "It has been a thrilling journey arranging the Big Sing Event with the sign2sing team and wonderful to be able to make it the focus event for my SEN Cluster Schools Project. We hadn't expected anything like this amazing nationwide response, it just shows how many people are up for a challenge!"
“This is the first time we’ve done something like this,” says Rowena Dean, Head of Marketing at Sign Health. “It’s going to be so exciting seeing a mass of children all doing the same thing – I think it will be quite moving. It’s a further expression of Deaf children’s own language and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone joining in together – it’s going to be pretty special.”
Anthony Kirkbride, from ContinYou, says, “I have never been involved in a world record attempt, so learning to sign and sing ‘Teach the World to Sing’ is fantastic, and will be made even more amazing by sharing it with so many young people at the same time!”
We think they're going to blow that record out of the water!
So come on, join in the fun on National Sing Up Day!
Sign Health are taking registrations for next year and would love to hear from you.
You can also view some signed songs on our Youtube channel, or perform some signed songs of your own from our Song Bank.
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