They didn’t set a world record. But they did show a small Minnesota town that there’s a lot of misinformation out there about vitamin D.

Cynthia Frederick, owner of Electric Beach in Mankato, Minn., organized and executed “The World’s Largest Bikini Parade” in Mankota on Saturday. The event drew 69 participants into the streets of Mankato for a parade that raised $1,701 for a charity group that promotes vitamin D awareness as a breast cancer prevention method — the Breast Cancer Natural Prevention Foundation.

That’s well short of the World Record Bikini Parade — 450 participants. But the event did far more. It created a regional media circus that in itself shed light on the absurd opposition to the very simple message of getting your vitamin D levels checked and that sunlight is the body’s natural source of vitamin D.

“I have learned so much from this whole thing,” Frederick said Sunday night. “First of all I am proud to be a tanning salon owner.”

While Frederick was showered with support from breast cancer survivors and those who have learned the vitamin D message, media coverage of the event was skewed by dermatology groups, who refuse to recognize that sun exposure is the body’s natural and intended source of vitamin D or that sun exposure has any benefits.

The parade did not promote indoor tanning — simply that vitamin D advocacy groups recommend getting your vitamin D levels checked, that natural vitamin D levels are 40-60 ng/ml and that sunlight is the natural source of vitamin D.

Frederick’s vitamin D blood level is 67 ng/ml.