Kathleen Henkel goes for a world record in charity marathon (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Roger Smith Hotel Lab Gallery
501 Lexington Ave. at 47th St.
June 26-27, free
www.facebook.com/solitaireblitz
solitaire blitz charity marathon slideshow
Solitaire is usually a solitary game, but Kathleen Henkel and Laura Rich are playing PopCap’s online version of the game in a very public way. Simultaneously, Rich, in London, and New Jersey’s Henkel, in the Roger Smith Hotel Lab Gallery, are in the midst of a thirty-hour marathon to enter the Guinness World Book of Records. When we stopped by last night, Henkel was being entertained by friend Hasan Bakr, a percussionist who was playing the acoustic guitar, and PopCap social media director Jeff Green, who was hitting a bongo. Meanwhile, several witnesses were hanging around the nautical-themed, glassed-in room as people passed by on Lexington Ave., peeking in, curious about what was going on. In addition to potentially setting a world record for playing solitaire for thirty straight hours — Henkel and Rich earn ten-minute breaks for each hour played, and the time can be stockpiled — the event is raising funds for charity: water, an organization that brings clean and safe drinking water to developing nations. More than ninety thousand dollars was raised during the event.