If you’ve never been randomly hugged
by a stranger: prepare yourself.
VCU students and thousands of other
people worldwide have joined Facebook.
com groups and events promoting “Free
Hug Day.” On Monday, celebrants plan
to hug strangers for the sake of world
peace.
“Sept. 10 is the day before Sept. 11,”
said Alex Schaffer, a high school junior
from Conneticut and the creator of the
Facebook event, “Free Hug Day.” “We
will all sit down on that day and think
about the tragedies that have befallen this
world. … We will think to ourselves,
‘What has this world come to?’ ”
Schaffer said this type of depressed
contemplation is the reason he created
the Facebook group.
“That is why I created this event, so
when you do ask yourself that (question),
you think about all the hugs you had
received the day before, and you think
to yourself that there is love left.”
Schaffer’s event has 816,754 con-
fi rmed guests who plan to participate
in the event by hugging strangers on
Monday. The event includes college
and high school students from all over
the world, including Asia, Europe and
the U.S. Schaffer said the number of
members of his group “grows every
hour.”
According to Schaffer’s event description,
the hugging should begin
at midnight on Monday and end at
midnight on Tuesday.
“Free Hug Day was my idea, but
the campaign was created by Juan
Mann in Australia,” Schaffer
said.
Juan Mann, an Australian,
created the Free Hugs
campaign, which spun off
the attention from Facebook.
Mann said the Free Hugs campaign
began when his life turned upside
down, and he found himself homeless
and alone in the terminal of the
airport in Sydney, Australia.
“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,” Mann said on
his Web site, http://freehugscampaign.
org. “The fi rst person who stopped …
told me how her dog had just died that
morning … Everyone has problems and
for sure mine haven’t compared. But to
see someone who was once frowning
smile even for a moment is worth it
every time.”
Mann’s site features a video of him
and his campaign and how it has
evolved. Many students have watched
this video and commented on Facebook
about how moving the video is.
Some people have gone so
far as to create groups such
as “Juan Mann is my Hero!”
Another Facebook spin-off
from Mann’s campaign is “A
Campaign for Free Hugs,”
created by Christina Yesu. This group
already boasts 28,200 members.
Other Facebook groups include
“Free Hug Day – Global,” “Free Hug
Day – specifi c to Richmond, VA,” “A
Campaign for Free Hugs” and “Free Hug
Coalition,” to name only a few.
Yet while many people might be
willing to participate via a click on
Facebook, will VCU students really give
or take random hugs?
Kristin Epperson, 19, a junior studying
social work, is a part of a Free Hug
Day group and plans to participate on
Monday.
“I’d go up and hug people if they
seemed open to it, yes … and I think
others will too,” Epperson said. “Monday
will be a time of possibly uncomfortable
but well-meaning hugs exchanged
between people who care about each
other and the world in general.”
Some VCU students, however, are not
sure much peace will come from all of
the promotion.
“(I) don’t really think it will promote
world peace,” said Peter McNamara, 23,
a graduate student. “But it’s a good step
in the right direction.”
Epperson said the event was at least
a good try.
“As for promoting world peace, it’s
possible. I don’t think it’s likely to have
much of an effect,” Epperson said. “But
it’s a good idea in theory and certainly
can’t make things worse.”