Free hugs promised at Golden Gate Bridge to fight holiday loneliness, organizers say
An organization called “HugTrain” promises free hugs at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve in an effort to fight holiday season loneliness, organizers say.
“Hey San Francisco! No plans for tonight? Now you do!” HugTrain organizers wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning. “Join us by the flagpole [southeast of the Golden Gate Bridge] to watch the fireworks and get a free hug! See you there starting at 11:30!”
A Facebook event page for the occasion instructs people to “put ‘RG5F+7J Presidio, San Francisco, CA’ in Google Maps to find the exact location.”
The iconic bridge — which connects the San Francisco peninsula in the south to Marin County to the north — is a suicide magnet that experts writing in the American Journal of Psychiatry have called “the number one suicide site in the world.”
Other recent HugTrain stops this holiday season have include Chicago and Salt Lake City, Utah. According to Bay City News, “HugTrain has crisscrossed the U.S. and Canada each year for the past 11 years during the holidays offering hugs to anyone who asks for one.”
A GoFundMe page supporting HugTrain has raised more than $1,000 since November.
SFist reports that “the HugMaster for the New Year’s Eve event will be Anton Zyngier,” the creator of the GoFundMe goal.
“Since 2009, our founder has crisscrossed Canada and the US by train offering hugs to anyone who requests one during the holiday season,” Zyngier wrote on the GoFundMe page. “This 11th annual trip will be led by a new HugMaster!”
Last holiday season’s HugMaster, Arie Moyal — who for years led the HugTrain excursions across the U.S. and Canada — spoke with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette during a stop in the western Pennsylvania city in January.
“My job isn’t to get as many hugs as possible,” Moyal said, according to the newspaper. “My job is to be available — for people who don’t have anyone, who could use a hug, or who just want a hug, who understand the value of a hug. So, my job isn’t to rack up the hugs. It’s to be there for people who don’t have them, and to have this conversation about loneliness.”
But he said his No. 1 priority was consent.
“I don’t ask. I don’t solicit. This is my offer,” Moyal said, according to the Post-Gazette. “If you take me up on it, I know you have decided to take me up on it. It’s not because I put you on the spot.”
Why hugs, though?
“Hugs have been shown to have a positive impact on all of the health issues that loneliness causes, be they physiological or psychological in nature,” organizers said on the GoFundMe. “They’re also a moment of shared vulnerability which increase trust and gives people a sense of belonging. Best of all, hugs are an example of a small action anyone can take to make the world a better place!”
This story was originally published December 31, 2019 at 2:00 PM.
