Dubai: Students, teachers and parents from GEMS Education gathered to form the ‘World’s Largest Mosaic Mural Made of Plastic Bottle Caps’ forming the phrase ‘Zayed’s Ambitions Embrace Space’, as part of the 48th UAE National Day celebrations.
The Guinness World Record was set at GEMS Al Barsha National School for Boys in Dubai’s Al Barsha area on Tuesday.
Students worked for a month to produce the mural using 13,434 bottle caps that were all in the UAE flag’s colours.
In attendance was Shaikh Jumuah Bin Maktoum Al Maktoum; Abdul Rahim Bin Shafi’a, Al Barsha Police Station’s director; and Mohammad Al Harmi, director of space operations at Dubai’s Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre.
Hazzaa Al Mansoori, the first UAE astronaut, was unable to attend due to the passing away of his brother.
The mosaic’s theme was intended to teach students the importance of celebrating and supporting the UAE’s achievements. Additionally, students were taught the importance of finding creative ways to recycle and reuse plastic.
Karim Murcia, principal of GEMS Al Barsha told Gulf News: “We got the whole school community involved in bringing bottle caps, we kept the reason a mystery at first. When we revealed the structure, students, parents and staff were involved in the process of sticking the caps.”
Shaikh Jumuah was invited to stick the final bottle cap onto the mural before the Guinness World Record officials validated the achievement.
Dino Varkey, CEO of GEMS Education, said: “By creating the ‘World’s Largest Mosaic Mural Made of Plastic Bottle Caps’ we wanted to pay tribute to the rulers of the UAE for their visionary leadership which served as a catalyst for the growth GEMS Education.”
