During summer break, watching the news, twins and seniors Andrew “AJ” and Samuel “Sam” DiCarlo couldn’t help but notice some of their friends on Channel 8. Zionsville High School’s graduating class of 2012 had attempted to break the Guinness World Record for most sets of twins to graduate in the same year.

“It was all over the news that Zionsville had 14 sets, but the record was 16. AJ and I looked into it and started counting the twins by going through my yearbook,” Sam said. “I soon discovered Carmel had 17, and we immediately decided to contact Guinness.”

In November, the DiCarlos received an email from Guinness stating their record application was being processed, a step farther than most usually get. They decided to take the good news to Principal John Williams.
Social studies teacher Wesley Drew played an important role in making this happen.

“It all started with a packet probably 100 pages or so of just information I had to read through on legalities and all that fun stuff. Once I had a chance to read through all of it, I organized a plan to try and document everything,” Drew said. “What I needed, who I needed to get in touch with. Then it was a matter to try and plan an attempt. I started organizing with the kids to get what I could from them and did all the extra communication on the side as we were doing that.”
On Feb. 15 the attempt was made. Mayor James Brainard, attorney TK Mershow and Sergeant Adam Miller served as the three witnesses.

“Since then, I’ve got a document where I can keep track of who’s turned things in and what things I need to have changed,” Drew said. “We’re truthfully only about halfway through collecting the evidence. I’ve still got to get a lot of evidence from a lot of kids.”

Drew continually works hard to make this attempt become a record for the 2013 school year; and his work doesn’t go unnoticed.

“We’ve all seen how hard the staff works to make this happen,” Sam said. “It’s something most schools wouldn’t even have enough twins to do. Speaking for all 34 of us, we are so thankful to have a staff working as hard as ours.”

With a graduating class of over 1,200 students it’s not uncommon that there are 34 students who can say they have a twin.

“It’ll be really cool to potentially have this record,” AJ said. “Always having my twin, my brother, my best friend, whatever you want to call it, by my side has been a blast. But it’s our senior year and so much is going to change. It’s cool knowing 32 other kids besides Sam and I that will have this record to remember too.”

Drew said he has put in a lot of hard work to collect birth certificates and to arrange meetings so he can gather the 17 sets of twins all in the same room.

“Originally, I was doing my administrative internship in the fall here at the high school and Mr. Williams came and talked to me about doing this as an extra project,” Drew said. “I thought it was a neat opportunity. My wife is a twin, and my mom is a twin, so that was some extra incentive in doing it. I knew they’d be excited about it.”

Guinness requires staff members like Drew to collect a lot of evidence which can be difficult, but it definitely pays off in the end.

“I can’t wait. We will have something to remember from our time here at Carmel,” AJ said. “It’s one of those things where I can show my kids in 20 years and they will think it’s so cool.”