Roughly 1,600 redheads gathered in downtown Portland for 10 minutes on Saturday, unofficially nabbing the world record for the most ginger-haired people assembled in one place.

Organizers won’t know if they made the grade for another two to three months, but unofficial counts clocked in between 1,300 and 1,600 redheads at the Portland Redhead Event.

-- they had hoped to gather 1,255 redheads at Pioneer Courthouse Square to break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people with naturally red hair. The previous North American record was set by Samammash, Wash., on July 17, 2010, with 890 redheads.

To qualify for the Portland gathering, registrants had to bring a color photo of themselves as a young person showing their naturally red hair. Participants came from all over Oregon and the rest of the United States to join in.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Shea Hergert, of Sandy, “Usually I’m the one that sticks out in a crowd. I blend in today.”

If their results are approved, the redheads will have set Portland's third world record this summer. In July the Human Access Project achieved the record for most people floating in a line with 620 people, and Treecology and Hoyt Arboretum achieved one for most people simultaneously hugging trees in one place at one time, beating the previous record of 702 huggers.

In addition to a world record attempt, the redhead event was a fundraiser for the Skin Cancer Foundation and a way to educate people about how to prevent skin cancer, to which redheads and fair skinned are particularly susceptible.

-- Christian Gaston and Sara Hottman