Besides having a helpful smile in every aisle, West Ames HyVee is trying to break a record with the world’s largest human smile.

Tom Gard, store director, said West HyVee, 3800 West Lincoln Way, has been planning to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest human logo in North America. They will make a huge human smile at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Hilton Coliseum parking lot.

“We want to break the record. I think it would be a neat thing for Ames to be known to be the largest human smile,” said Russ Weis, manager of store operations.

Gard said the current record from Mexico is 10,004 people. The overall world record for the largest human logo is 34,000.

He said for 30 years, the HyVee corporation has had a springtime party to clean the store after winter along with events, sales and decorations. Gard said the West HyVee theme is “We’re breaking records.”

“We’ll have some neat things in the store,” he said. “The big finale is the big smile at Hilton parking lot.”

Participants are asked to wear red shirts and Gard said they will hold yellow signs for the eyes and the big smile. “We can’t map it out on the ground because we don’t know exactly how many people are going to be there,” he said. “We’re going to have to react to the amount of people who come.”

Gard said they have the facility starting at 4 p.m. He said they’d like to have people arrive around 5 p.m. and then at 6 p.m. have everyone make a circle. A helicopter will then take a picture of the human logo.

Free food will be provided to participants including hot dogs, chips, cookies and pop, Gard said. Free-will donation cans will also be around to raise money for juvenile diabetes. “We’re hoping to have some fun, involve the community and raise some money for charity,” he said. “If we set a record – that would be really cool.”

Weis said certain rules and regulations must be followed to break a record. He said two people of stature from the community have to be on hand, an area photo must be taken and everyone in the logo has to register. “Everybody in the smile has to register, that’s how they get their count,” Weis said.