Annika Agarwal, who is a junior at Biotechnology High School, Freehold Township, believes her Jan. 11 effort resulted in a world record for the largest photo awareness campaign when an event at Marlboro High School produced 456 posters from 159 participants of varying ages.
Now, Annika is attempting to gain recognition for the achievement in Guinness World Records (previously The Guinness Book of World Records). The current official record in the largest photo awareness campaign category is 302 posters at an event put together by Jagadeesh Pillai of India in 2016.
Annika’s nonprofit foundation, Nurturing All in Need of Aid (NAINA), works to improve medical access for underprivileged people around the world.
NAINA partnered with the Marlboro Teen Advisory Committee to host the event at Marlboro High School with the assistance of Teen Advisory Committee adult facilitator Janine Zaslavsky.
Annika is a resident of Marlboro. Her message for the awareness campaign is “Healthcare for All.” She said the participants at the January event traced their hands on a poster and colored them to symbolize helping hands.
“I always knew I wanted to do something like this where everyone comes together for a cause, but I never knew I would experience this much support,” Annika said. “Regardless, it still took many late nights and dozens of phone calls to make it happen, but when you see everyone supporting a cause like this, all the hard work doesn’t seem so hard anymore.”
Zaslavsky said NAINA reached out to the Teen Advisory Committee, local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and the Marlboro Hindi School, as well as to local businesses for supplies.
“It was nice to see such a large turnout from the community and so many people helping Annika reach her goal,” Zaslavsky said. “It’s wonderful to see a vision come to fruition and to see young people have goals that can be accomplished. It’s great to be able to witness these type of events and be a part of something special.”
Annika and Zaslavsky said they have been in contact with officials at Guinness World Records as they seek to have the record-setting attempt verified. They said the process requires submitting an application with photos, videos and published articles about the accomplishment.
