Tatum Braun of Charlotte sets Guinness world record

Tatum Braun, a soon to be Senior at CVU and a resident of Charlotte, has set a Guinness world record. She did it by balancing on a balance board for 7 hours, 25 minutes and 31 seconds, breaking the previous record of two hours and 36 minutes. A balance board is a device used by athletes to improve their balance and agility that resembles a skateboard deck on top of a thick rolling pin. One keeps upright by rolling back and forth.

Braun’s mother had previously set the record with a time of one hour, 30 minutes, and 38 seconds. In an interview last week Braun said, “I wanted to make the record as long as I could so that it wouldn’t be easy for my younger brother to break it. I wanted to put distance between us so that it would be hard to break. He said he will try to break it once he turns 16 because you have to be 16 to break a record officially.”

Balance boards are often used for dry land training in skiing, so it is no coincidence that Braun comes from a family of skiers. She, her older sister at Dartmouth, and her two younger brothers are all Nordic skiers. Her family has lived in Charlotte since 2005 after relocating from Utah.

To Braun there was also something more important than getting her name in the record book. Through the attempt and successful completion, she was able to raise more than $900 for the Vermont refugee resettlement program. It is the only refugee resettlement program in Vermont and her and her siblings have been involved for at least four years. At the beginning of those four years, the Brauns were able to connect with a recently resettled family from Bhutan. Tatum grew close to them and helped them get settled in the US. “It has been really cool to see their transition over the course of four years,” she said.