Jaycees hope this effort floats them into record books

Was the ginormous soda float that the Algonquin/Lake in the Hills Jaycees created over the weekend enough to break the Guinness world record?

We should know within the next eight to 12 weeks; that's how long it takes the Guinness staff to certify the record, said Sara Wilcox, a spokeswoman for the Guinness Book of World Records.

At the Lake in the Hills Summer Sunset Festival, hundreds of attendees and the Jaycees spent nearly five hours Sunday, mixing a float that was a bit more than 3,000 gallons and contained 75 gallons of vanilla ice cream - the group spent $3,700 of its own money on more than 5,810 two-liter bottles of soda - any soda they could get their hands on.

The mixture, assembled in a 15-foot by 48-foot pool, attracted another sort of crowd, though.

Bees swarmed all around it as well, but there were no incidents reported, authorities from the Huntley Fire Protection District said.

The Jaycees embarked on the project as a promotional tool to encourage more people to join, said President Patrick Roppolo. In the process, the group attracted six prospective members.

On Sunday, the group also sold root beer floats (not from the pool) for $2 each and a $4 cup that read, "world's largest soda float."

"It was all for a good cause," Roppolo said. "(Breaking the record) was just something we thought would be attainable - just something fun to do."

Right now, Coca-Cola holds the record for the largest soda float. That one, concocted in 2007 at the World of Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta, was 3,000 gallons.

The Jaycees group is currently filling out a 13-page application, submitting video and other evidence to show it indeed broke Coke's record.

The Guinness records management team will review the evidence and should make its ruling by December.

As for the float itself, it is now in the hands of Rieke Septic Systems in West Dundee, where it is awaiting treatment, said owner Tim Collins.