S.C. woman folds 10,000 Starburst wrappers into world's longest chain

Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A South Carolina woman earned a Guinness World Record when she spent four years folding Starburst candy wrappers into the world's longest candy wrapper chain.

Elizabeth Allen of Greenville said she started folding Starburst wrappers during a college class at Furman University, using the wrappers from candy provided to the class by a professor.

Other students started to give their wrappers to her, and she soon started to receive wrappers from students in other classes.

"I think best when my hands are busy," Allen told Guinness World Records.

She continued to work on her candy chain for four years, collecting wrappers from the students she taught during her first and second years as a teacher.

"As a reward or to help students stay awake during a longer day, I would share Starbursts and they were so careful to not rip the wrappers," she said.

The finished chain includes 10,000 wrappers. She said her efforts became more difficult after discovering the chain couldn't support its own weight with more than 500 wrappers, so she started toting it around with her in a large plastic container to keep it from breaking.

The chain now lives in Allen's classroom, where it mostly spends its time sealed in the plastic container.

"I tried to hand it around my classroom, but the delicate chain falls apart when stretched too far," she said. "Also, many residual fruit flavors together are not an appealing scent."