After you flunk an exam, realize you blew all your money at the bars last night or drop your cell phone in a puddle, you really need a hug. It’s a good thing they’re free.
A group of University students are approaching those wearing a long face with open arms, as part of the international Free Hugs Campaign.
“Human touch is so important,” said Mattias Otto, a University junior who gives free hugs a couple days a week on campus. “Two or three hugs – no matter what’s going on – it makes your day perfect.”
Otto learned about the Free Hugs Campaign after watching the “Sick Puppies” music video on YouTube, featuring the free hug founder, Juan Mann, doing what he does best: hugging. Mann’s name is thought to be a pseudonym, meaning “one man.”
When Mann returned to Sydney after living in London, he said he felt like a tourist in his hometown, and watching people hugging each other in the airport made him feel even more alone.
“I wanted someone out there to be waiting for me. To be happy to see me. To smile at me. To hug me,” Mann said on his Web site. “So I got some cardboard and a marker and made a sign. I found the busiest pedestrian intersection in the city and held that sign aloft, with the words ‘Free Hugs’ on both sides.”
After 15 minutes, Mann said a woman came up to him, revealing her dog had died that morning and it was the one year anniversary of her daughter’s death, and told him she really needed a hug too.
“I think it’s a really inspirational story,” said Jeremy Blanchard, a University freshman who first went out on a free hug mission over winter break at Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland.
“I was nervous at first, breaking out of my shell and comfort zone,” he said. “You just have to be into it and show them you are genuine.”
Blanchard also goes out hugging a couple times a week on campus, where he says he averages 100 to 200 hugs every two hours.
“I’ve had a lot of people say, ‘I really, really need a hug right now,’” Blanchard said, adding that he never forces hugs on those not interested and that he can tell who those people are.
Blanchard said he became interested in the psychology behind hugging in high school, while learning that we live in a low-touch society.
“I realized my group never really hugs,” he said.
Kathleen Keating, author of “The Hug Therapy Book,” said our society suffers from “touch deprivation, skin hunger and hug inhibition.”
“Touch is the primary way we contact and connect with each other. Touch is the experience of how I meet you, you meet me, and we meet the world,” Keating said.
Otto said many people are uncomfortable with hugging and some make up excuses such as, “I’m trying to quit.”
“Society has sort of closed themselves off so much that it’s not okay to give a hug to somebody you don’t know. It’s really sad,” Otto said.
Blanchard said people often assume he’s gay or part of a religious organization, but he really just wants to make people smile.
“It definitely makes my day to make other people’s days. It’s always a better day when I’m giving free hugs,” he said.
The group of free huggers receives positive reactions as well. Otto said sometimes people run to him from half a block away, wanting to get a hug.
“One of my favorites is bikers who don’t want to get off their bikes, so we give them high-fives,” Otto said. “This one guy crashed into a pole (after a high-five) and got up and said ‘Okay, I really need a hug now.’”
Those interested in getting involved with the Free Hug Campaign can join the Facebook group “Free Hugs Campaign (UO Chapter),” which also provides links to the “Sick Puppies” music video and Mann’s Free Hugs Campaign Web site.
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