Sally Abou Melhem, Office of Communications, sa256@aub.edu.lb
AUB set a Guinness World Records title on May 9, 2018, by creating the largest notebook mosaic – flag, representing the Lebanese flag, made of 60,000 notebooks that were placed on the Green Field.
This was achieved by a group of students in a project entitled "Share the Flag." They were assisted by Antoine Sabbagh from AUB’s Suliman S. Olayan School of Business (OSB), serving as their academic supervisor, as well as a large group of professors, administrators, and university staff.
The flag unveiling ceremony was attended by Minister of Culture Ghattas Khoury representing both President of the Republic of Lebanon General Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri. MP Mohammed Qabbani represented Lebanon's Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri. In addition, elected MP Hagop Terzian, a delegation from the Directorate of Orientation of the Lebanese Army Command, a representative of Guinness World Records, as well as the media, university students, and professors attended the event, among others.
The ceremony began with the Lebanese national anthem, played live by the Army Band, followed by AUB’s alma mater and speeches by Provost Mohamed Harajli and Tarek Tabaja, one of the organizing students.
Samer Khallouf, head of records management and official adjudicator at Guinness World Records, announced during the event that AUB set the record for the largest notebook mosaic – flag, succeeding on its first attempt.
Finally, as a tribute to the Lebanese Army and its martyrs, son of martyr Colonel Danny Harb, Rayan Harb, placed the last red notebook, thus completing the Lebanese flag.
All notebooks used in creating the Lebanese flag mosaic will be donated to a large number of Lebanese public schools, with the aim of raising awareness on the quality and accessibility of education in public schools in Lebanon, for the benefit of the entire Lebanese society.