Aaron's, Inc., the lease-to-own retailer specializing in the sales and lease ownership of furniture, consumer electronics, home appliances and accessories, broke the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the Largest human mattress dominoes this week by toppling 1,200 mattresses at the Gaylord National Resort in Washington, D.C.

The new record for Largest human mattress dominoes – which surpassed the previous record of 1,150 – was only part of the event's significance. Aaron's is donating all 1,200 mattresses to D.C.-area organizations:  A Wider Circle, an organization focused on ending individual and family poverty, and to the Sasha Bruce and Wanda Alston youth homeless shelters.

"Breaking a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title has been a great team building event for the 2,000 associates we have attending our National Managers meeting this week," said Aaron's CEO John Robinson. "However, the significance of this event is that through the generosity of our manufacturing plant, Woodhaven, and our ACORP stores, we are able to provide 1,200 beds to needy families in the D.C.-area.  Our associates had great fun participating and knowing their efforts support our mission of giving back to our communities."

The event was made possible with Woodhaven Industries reducing the cost of the mattresses by 50 percent and Aaron's Community Outreach Program stores generously purchasing the mattresses so that all 1,200 mattresses could be donated to the D.C.-area organizations. Through Aaron's Gives programs, which include the Aaron's Foundation, Inc. and ACORP, Aaron's gave $2.8 million to communities across the nation in 2015.

An official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS adjudicator was on hand to observe and certify the new record, which involved the efforts of 1,200 Aaron's associates participating as human dominoes and who are in Washington, D.C. this week for the Company's annual National Managers Meeting. Beginning Monday, Aaron's store managers have participated in several community outreach activities across D.C., culminating in this week's record-breaking Largest human mattress dominoes attempt.

Utilizing two exhibit halls covering 70,000 square feet at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center, Aaron's and dominoes expert Robert Speca carefully erected 34 rows of mattresses manufactured by Woodhaven Industries, which is owned by Aaron's. At 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aaron's CEO John Robinson pushed over the first mattress and commenced the Largest human mattress dominoes record attempt. Within 13 minutes and 38 seconds, Aaron's associates had toppled all of the mattresses and produced a new world record.

The previous record for the Largest human mattress dominoes was achieved by 1,150 participants and was organized by German company Höffner Möbelgesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG in August 2012.