845 boards. One goal. One world record.
August 22.
I'm Hudson. I'm 14, and I've been standing up to food allergies my whole life. This summer I'm doing it on the water: leading hundreds of paddleboarders across the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes to break a Guinness World Record, raise $25,000 for kids like me.
The last day of school was supposed to be a party.
I was little. We were celebrating at a friend's house and somebody handed me a cookie. It had peanut butter in it. Nobody used the EpiPen. Nobody called an ambulance. My parents drove, fast, and I threw up in my car seat on the way to the hospital, stuck, scared, not knowing what was happening to me.
Here's the part I never told many people: that car seat sat in our basement for months while my parents tried to clean it. Every time I walked past it, I was back in the car. That's what a food allergy really is. It's not the list of foods. It's the car seat in the basement.
I started training:
Me, eating the thing that could kill me. On purpose. A tiny bit more every time.
It's called TIP or OIT, and it works like this. Picture a ball at the bottom of a mountain, and a wall behind it, pushing it up. Every dose, every checkup, every brave day adds a brick to the wall. The wall gets stronger. The ball gets higher.
The top of the mountain is food freedom. But I'll tell you the truth about the top: it's like the top of Half Dome. It's narrow. It's wobbly. It's a little scary. And one edge is a cliff. If you stop maintaining the wall, you slide back down the mountain a ways. Not off the cliff. Just down. So you keep adding bricks. Forever. That's the part nobody sees.
Paddleboarding is the one place the mountain can't follow me.
Out on the water with my friends there are no labels, no menus, no ingredient lists. Just balance. I got good at it. And this summer I realized the lake is where I want every allergy kid to feel what that's like, with a whole city standing up around them.
So we're going to break a world record doing it. And when the record falls, we circle the island in our chain of lakes together, hundreds of boards strong, paddles in the air, the whole lake teal.
844 has stood for nine years.
We need exactly one more.
The Guinness World Record we're chasing, Largest parade of stand up paddleboards (SUPs), was set in Vladivostok, Russia in 2017: 844 boards moving together. No American city has ever held it. Minneapolis, the city that grew up on its lakes, takes it with 845.
September 2017
August 22 · 8:30 am
The finale: the victory loop.
Hudson's idea. When the record falls, every board circles the island together, paddles raised, a slow moving ring of teal, the food allergy community's color, filling the whole lake. Pack-in, pack-out: we leave the water exactly as we found it.
This is bigger than one kid on one board.
American kids has a food allergy. That's about two kids in every classroom, on every team, at every birthday party.
Every three minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone in the US to the emergency room.
Cures exist today. But treatments are pushing the ball up the mountain for thousands of kids right now, and research needs fuel.
Tap the boards below. The teal ones are the allergy kids. On the water, you can't tell who reads labels and who doesn't. That's the point.
tap a board
$25 a board. Here's exactly where it goes.
We think fundraisers should show their work. So here's ours, right on the homepage. Hudson picked where the money goes himself.
Add fundraising pages, donations, and sponsors and the goal is $100,000. What that kind of money does:
Impact figures are estimates and will be finalized with our partners before launch. Every dollar in and out gets published after the event. Can't paddle? Donations without a board are 100% welcome and 100% of the same math.
Three ways onto the water
Bring your board
You own a SUP? You're the backbone of this record. Your $25 goes straight into the math above.
- Official board number + wristband
- Teal flag for every allergy kid who wants to fly one
- Paddle clubs: group registration, bring your whole crew
Borrow one
No board, no problem. We're reserving rental fleets across the Twin Cities for the morning.
- $25 registration + $50 board and paddle
- Board waiting for you at the beach, wheel-carts to get it to the water
- Limited supply: first claimed, first floated
Fuel a board
Can't paddle that day? You can still be part of the record's why.
- $25 sponsors a kid's board, with your name riding the rail
- Straight donations welcome, no board required
- Companies: put your logo on a fleet of 10, 25, or 50
Stand up for a kid, at any level.
Every tier goes straight to helping kids with food allergies, split across Children's Minnesota, FARE research, and the Teal Pumpkin Project. Pick the one that feels right.
Claim Your Spot
Twenty-five dollars puts one paddler on the water toward 845 and goes straight to helping kids with food allergies. Be one of the 845.
Borrow a Board and a Paddle
Covers a paddler who needs to borrow a board and paddle from us to join on the water.
Donate a 2-Pack of EpiPens
Provides enough funding for a two-pack of EpiPens that could save a child's life during an emergency and helps support ongoing food allergy research.
Train a School
Helps train school staff to recognize a serious allergic reaction and respond during the critical minutes when every second matters.
Fuel the Research
Supports food allergy research and patient care programs that are helping improve the lives of children living with food allergies.
Donate 10 Boards
Provides stand-up paddleboards for participants who want to Stand Up to Food Allergies and join the event but cannot afford the equipment, while also supporting food allergy research.
Guinness World Records Validation
Covers the official Guinness World Records validation costs, helping certify the record attempt and increase awareness of food allergies on a global scale.
Stand Up Your Way
Give what feels right. Every dollar stands up for a child with food allergies.
The fine print, minus the fine
Do I need to be an experienced paddler?
If you can kneel or stand on a board and move forward slowly, you're in. The parade moves at conversation pace, life jackets are required, and safety boats ring the whole fleet. Falling in is allowed. Standing back up is the whole brand.
What does it cost?
$25 to register with your own board, $75 if you need to borrow one ($25 registration + $50 rental). Every registration dollar goes into the published math: 845 × $25 = $21,125 before a single donation.
What exactly counts for the record?
845 or more stand-up paddleboards moving together in one continuous parade, verified on site by an official Guinness World Records adjudicator with a drone count. We'll know we broke it before we're back on shore.
Do you leave the lake clean?
Yes. Pack-in, pack-out. No on-site sales, no single-use giveaways, nothing dropped on the water. Every paddler carries out what they carry in, and we leave the lake exactly as we found it.
What if the weather is bad?
If the lake says no on Saturday, we go Sunday, August 23, same time, same beach, same board number. Registered paddlers get the call by text and email by 6:00 pm Friday.
Is the event food-allergy safe?
Yes. The shore village is top-9-allergen-aware, every vendor labels everything, and medical staff with epinephrine are stationed on shore and on the water. This is the one event where the allergy kid is the most normal kid there.
Can I just donate without paddling?
Absolutely. Donations without a board count just the same, split across Children's Minnesota, FARE research, and the Teal Pumpkin Project, and they show up in the same public accounting after the event.
"Anyone else saying it doesn't matter. You have to think it to yourself. At night, lying in bed, not talking to your parents. That's where you decide. We'll be on the water when you do."
Claim your board
Saturday, August 22 · launch 8:30 am · Cedar Lake, Bde Maka Ska + Lake of the Isles, Minneapolis. $25 with your own board. Your zone gets assigned when you register. Be a number in the history books.
Scan to claim your board
Registration confirms your spot and opens your personal fundraising page.
You'll get your official board number by email. Allergy kids: ask for your teal flag.