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January 13, 2010
A message from Tina Thrussell, instigator of Free Hugs Day on Dec 13, 2009 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada:
February 14th is Valentine’s Day – the day for lovers to express their love. But I prefer to think of it simply as a day to express love – to everyone, not just your lover(s)! It doesn’t take much to express love - a warm smile, a gentle word, a kind gesture, a loving hug – yet it brings so much good energy into the world. Expressing your love makes you and the recipient feel good.
Speaking of hugs, what better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to wear your red Free Hugs t-shirt and give away hugs all day!? Don’t have your t-shirt yet? Visit www.freehugs.bestucanb.ca to find out how to get yours. Or visit the offices of Servants Anonymous to pick up a shirt at 1008 14 Street SE. Phone: 403-205-5529. By buying a shirt, you’ll be offering financial support to the Servants Anonymous Society of Calgary www.servantsanon.com and the women they support, thereby sharing your love with women who are recovering victims of sexual abuse.
Proudly wear your Free Hugs T-shirt and share the joy of hugs!
We’ve set the next official Free Hugs Day in Calgary as July 3rd, to honor the original Free Hugs Day. (Fits well into pre-Stampede activities, too!)
Posted in Valentine's Day - Free Hugs 4 Everyone | No Comments >>
December 22, 2009
The following message is from Tina Thrussell, founder of Best You Can Be Inc, regarding the follow-up to the Free Hugs Day on December 13th:
If you missed being on the streets of Calgary with us on December 13th, it doesn’t matter – the hug campaign lives on!
We’ve been wearing our Free Hugs t-shirts everywhere we go – the Christmas party on Saturday night, the Open House on Sunday afternoon, the Soul Food Concert on Sunday night, shopping in the mall today – and happily sharing hugs with everyone willing to receive them. And they are so willing! People are thrilled to be offered a hug and are expressing heart-felt appreciation for the hugs.
And we’ve received national attention – CBC Television aired coverage of the event (you can still watch the newscast at http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/ID=1358127563 ). As a result, a city counsellor from Fredericton, NB has contacted us to find out how to host a Free Hugs Day in the capital city of NB!
This morning I did a CBC Radio interview that aired on national radio – and will be airing again on International radio on their program The Link. You can listen to the show at http://www.rcinet.ca/rci/en/emissions/1952.shtml
The warmth that comes from sharing a hug is good for your soul – and your heart! There have been studies that show hugging raises your levels of oxytocin and lowers levels of cortisol – which reduces stress and is good news for your heart. Hugs lower blood pressure which reduces the risk of heart disease.
So do your heart some good; put on your t-shirt (if you haven’t got one yet you can pick it up from the offices of Servants Anonymous Society of Calgary at 1008 14 Street SE from Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Phone: 403-205-5529 or order one on-line. Details at www.freehugs.bestucanb.ca) and get out there to hug someone today! (For U.S. orders, order online at www.freehugs4us.org)
Celebrate the True Spirit of Giving by Sharing hugs. Share the love; Share a hug!
P.S. You can share your stories of the hugging experience on our blog. Register at www.blog.bestucanb.ca We’ll keep sharing ours there and we’d love to hear your feel good stories, too!
(Feel free to share you hug stories on this blog as well!!!)
Posted in December 13, 2009 - Free Hugs Day | No Comments >>
December 14, 2009
Coupons set up for donations and fundraising are still active. Use the coupon code when ordering and $10.00 from every item purchased goes to the organization of your choice.
The following coupons are still active and will remain active indefinitely:
Servants Anonymous Society of Calgary (Coupon code: SAS) The mission of Servants Anonymous Society is to provide long-term programs, ongoing support, hope and wholeness to women age 16 and older, with or without children, who are victims of, or are at risk of sexual exploitation. SAS offers housing, a recovery-oriented life skills classroom, child care services, job training, work experience, and follow-up care, services and support to the women and children they serve. For more information visit their website: www.servantsanon.com
Glide Memorial Church of San Francisco (Coupon code: Glide) Glide’s mission is to create a radically inclusive, just and loving community mobilized to alleviate suffering and break the cycles of poverty and marginalization. Glide’s core values emerge from Glide as a spiritual movement. They are rooted in empowerment, recovery and personal transformation. Our core values inspire and guide our behaviors. They are the ground we stand on. Glide’s core values are Radical Inclusion, Truth Telling, Loving and Hopeful, For the People, and Celebration! For more information visit www.glide.org
School of Life Foundation (Coupon code: SLF) The School of Life Foundation is committed to the social, moral and character development of youth. They donate their workbook, Learn To "School" Your Toughest Opponent, to sports teams, schools, church groups, at-risk programs, and other youth organizations. The book offers life-guiding principles and vales to help youth achieve straight A's in the school of life. The School of Life Foundation was created to help prevent further social decay in society. We believe that, together, we must do all we can to inspire youth to learn and live valuable principles that are proven deterrents to moral ills. These principles along with applicable life skills will help individuals find more peace and happiness in the school of life. Find out more at www.schooloflifefoundation.org.
Positive Focus - Living Life Fulfilled (Coupon Code: PF) Positive Focus, a 501c3 non-profit, has inspired shifting to a life of unconditional joy, love, and absolute abundance. Offering events focused on service-charity, mind-body-spirit, and fun-social, through their three divisions of adult, kids, and green events, Positive Focus has been inspiring people to live a life of fulfillment and positivity. Positive Focus is a leader in inspiring change to a positive (and fun!) life. To learn more visit their website at www.Positive-Focus.com
The International Basket Brigade - Anthony Robbins Foundation (Coupon Code: IBB) What begain more than 30 years ago as Tony Robbins' individual effort to feed families in need, has now grown into the Anthony Robbins Foundation's International Basket Brigade, providing baskets of food and household items for an estimated 2 million people annually in countries all over the world. Throughout the year International Basket Brigade volunteers deliver food, clothing, and hope to those who need it most. Find out more - visit their website at www.anthonyrobbinsfoundation.org.
Posted in Uncatagorized | No Comments >>
December 14, 2009
WOW!!! They did it!! Check out the links below for video and newspaper articles!
"This was SO much fun today!! Even despite the -33 weather (Jan that’s -25 farenheit for you! Yes, it was cold enough to get frostbite in 10 minutes, but somehow we managed unharmed – the love kept us warm enough!)
We got TONS of coverage – QR 77 Radio, News 660 radio, Vibe FM radio…
The Calgary Herald:
http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/neighbours/story.html?id=f984e4c0-3f5a-4232-9041-cf5894dd2ddf
Metro Community News - Free Hugs Make Spirits Bright:
http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/local/article/396633--free-hugs-make-spirits-bright
We got TV coverage too, for both CBC and the National and Global TV. The videos are on our own bestucanbchannel on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E96IJGBCgQg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRWmbALrNZM
They cut the interview part where we talked about the t-shirt proceeds going to Servants Anonymous - bummer - so we only get what they decide to air! All in all, it was a fabulous, fun, and impactful day!!"
Posted in December 13, 2009 - Free Hugs Day | No Comments >>
November 10, 2009
Join us on December 13, 2009
From 1:30 - 2:30pm in YOUR time zone!!
Let’s swarm the streets offering FREE HUGS to everyone!
Our intention is to spread loving, joyful, abundant, and unified ENERGY!!!!
YOU can help by taking any or all of the following steps:
1. Purchase an official FREE HUGS t-shirt. Your t-shirt purchase not only makes you easily identifiable as an official hugger, it offers financial support to the nonprofit group of your choice. For every t-shirt purchased, Free Hugs 4 Us will donate $10.00 to the organization you designate. Visit www.freehugs4us.org/cart to order your t-shirt. (On the Last Page of the check-out, there is a box to the left that asks for your code. This is very important! You must enter the coupon code into that box in order for us to identify the group you want to support. Use the preferred coupon code and you will also receive a $3.00 discount to help defray the cost of shipping.)
Currently we are supporting:
Servants Anonymous Society of Calgary (Coupon code: SAS)
The mission of Servants Anonymous Society is to provide long-term programs, ongoing support, hope and wholeness to women age 16 and older, with or without children, who are victims of, or are at risk of sexual exploitation. SAS offers housing, a recovery-oriented life skills classroom, child care services, job training, work experience, and follow-up care, services and support to the women and children they serve. For more information visit www.servantsanon.com.
Glide Memorial Church of San Francisco (Coupon code: Glide)
Glide’s mission is to create a radically inclusive, just and loving community mobilized to alleviate suffering and break the cycles of poverty and marginalization. Glide’s core values emerge from Glide as a spiritual movement. They are rooted in empowerment, recovery and personal transformation. Our core values inspire and guide our behaviors. They are the ground we stand on. Glide’s core values are Radical Inclusion, Truth Telling, Loving and Hopeful, For the People, and Celebration! For more information visit www.glide.org
School of Life Foundation (Coupon code: SLF)
The School of Life Foundation is committed to the social, moral and character development of youth. They donate their workbook, Learn To "School" Your Toughest Opponent, to sports teams, schools, church groups, at-risk programs, and other youth organizations. The book offers life-guiding principles and vales to help youth achieve straight A's in the school of life. The School of Life Foundation was created to help prevent further social decay in society. We believe that, together, we must do all we can to inspire youth to learn and live valuable principles that are proven deterrents to moral ills. These principles along with applicable life skills will help individuals find more peace and happiness in the school of life. Find out more at www.schooloflifefoundation.org.
Positive Focus - Living Life Fulfilled (Coupon Code: PF) Positive Focus, a 501c3 non-profit, has inspired shifting to a life of unconditional joy, love, and absolute abundance. Offering events focused on service-charity, mind-body-spirit, and fun-social, through their three divisions of adult, kids, and green events, Positive Focus has been inspiring people to live a life of fulfillment and positivity. Positive Focus is a leader in inspiring change to a positive (and fun!) life. To learn more visit their website at www.Positive-Focus.com.
The International Basket Brigade - Anthony Robbins Foundation (Coupon Code: IBB) What begain more than 30 years ago as Tony Robbins' individual effort to feed families in need, has now grown into the Anthony Robbins Foundation's International Basket Brigade, providing baskets of food and household items for an estimated 2 million people annually in countries all over the world. Throughout the year International Basket Brigade volunteers deliver food, clothing, and hope to those who need it most. Find out more - visit their website at www.anthonyrobbinsfoundation.org.
If you have a local nonprofit organization you want your t-shirt purchases to support, contact Jan Presley at Free Hugs 4 Us: info@freehugs4us.org or call her at 435-668-2445. We will set up a coupon code for YOUR organization.
2. OR… make yourself a sign that says FREE HUGS and hit the streets with us to offer hugs to passers-by.
3. Help us promote FREE HUGS day. Contact info@bestucanb.ca to let us know if you can put up posters or send out press releases (we'll write them) to newspapers and TV stations, etc. (Best U Can B is a company based in Calgary, Alberta. Their seminars, workshops and retreats utilize high-involvement and accelerated learning techniques that allow participants to learn faster, retain it longer and have tons of fun while dramatically enhancing their lives. By utilizing breakthrough processes in SMALL GROUP ENVIRONMENTS, their participants experience both immediate and long term results that include a greater sense of self - they have a clear understanding of who they are; better relationships; true power; a purpose for living; inner peace. Best U Can Be is the initiating force behind the December 13 Free Hugs Day. It’s all starting in Calgary!!! Who knows where it will land!)
4. Tell everyone you know about it!! Encourage people you know in other cities to host their own FREE HUGS DAY! Imagine the energetic impact if people all around the world joined us – a huge wave of hugging and human connection throughout the day – everyone offering hugs for an hour or longer; 1:30-2:30pm in your own time zone - we will create a TSUNAMI OF LOVE!!! So email everyone you know and send them to www.bestucanb.ca/freehugs.php or www.freehugs4us.org/blog for more information.
5. Invite your city officials to get involved! (Calgary’s Mayor David Bronconnier has been invited to declare December 13th as Free Hugs day in Calgary. See if your city officials will support this as well.)
Posted in December 13, 2009 - Free Hugs Day | No Comments >>
December 31, 2008
Free Hugs 4 Us had a booth at Santa’s Workshop, a two day expo in St. George, Utah. It must be understood that St. George is a very safe city. Not long ago, I left my door open, not just unlocked, but wide open when I left for work one day. I came home that evening and recalled the last minute rush in the morning, running in from the car to grab something I’d forgotten, and leaving the door open. I walked through the house and saw that nothing had been touched. Nice! It’s a great feeling to live in a place where the trust level is so high. This is also, like most towns and cities in Utah, a very family oriented community. Therefore, it was no surprise to see so many children accompanying their parents at the expo. It was a surprise, however, to experience so much fear.
The Santa’s Workshop Expo had more than seven hundred booths ranging from homemade jewelry, clothes, quilts, and knick knacks to the latest in stun guns and pepper spray. The Free Hugs booth featured our T-Shirts, Teddy Bears, and Congreve Cube & DVD set. We also had three Free Hugs Bears available for signing. People signed the bears’ Free Hugs shirts and had their picture taken hugging the bear. The bears and pictures were subsequently sent to three children. This was a big hit, especially with the children at the Expo. Pictures can be seen on the blog entries below.
I took the opportunity to wander around the Expo and speak with other booth operators. Most, like us, were experiencing dismal sales. In light of the recent economic downturn, this was not a great surprise. What was a surprise was the constant activity at the stun gun and pepper spray booth. This booth was two rows from ours, yet I could hear the sound of the stun gun a least once a minute as the booth operators demonstrated how it worked. Here we were, in the midst of beautiful handmade Christmas ornaments, hand painted inspirational plaques, and many other items celebrating life and love; and the booth with the most activity was a business based on fear.
I recall a family walking by our booth. The father looked at our banner, rolled his eyes, and said to his wife, “Free Hugs, huh? Now that’s scary!” I’ve thought about this for a few weeks now. The pervasive fear and the desire to defend and protect ourselves is blocking us from being the free, caring, giving human beings that deep down we all are.
My prayer for 2009 is to experience abundance, even in the face of scarcity; to experience love, even in the face of fear; to experience gratitude, even in the face of stinginess and jealousy; to experience being instrumental and contributing, even in the face of others’ devaluing and minimizing; basically, to experience being a powerful, connecting, contributing woman, regardless of what the rest of the world seems to want. I hope you will join me!
Jan Presley, Director, Free Hugs 4 Us
Posted in Uncatagorized | No Comments >>
December 3, 2008
Bears for Hailey, Robert, & Dana Wave Goodbye
Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth at Santa's Workshop. The pictures from the weekend are posted below. The bears going to Hailey, Robert, and Dana have left St. George, Utah, and are on their way to their new homes!
Due to your generosity, we collected $67.00 for Robert and Dana's family! What's more impressive than the amount collected, are the feelings and motivation around the contributions. Twice during the weekend I saw young children reach into their pockets and pull out all the money they had - quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies - and put ALL of it in the basket! One young girl asked me if what she had was enough - about 14 cents - I had tears in my eyes as I told her it was more than enough!
We didn't sell much this weekend, but we left feeling much richer than when we started. All thanks to you and your willingness to contribute and make a difference! While you made a difference in Hailey, Robert, and Dana's lives, you also made a difference in mine. I am humbled and touched to be a part of the unconditional giving displayed at Santa's Workshop. Thank you again, Jan Presley
Posted in Santa's Workshop - November 28-29, 2008 | No Comments >>
December 2, 2008
Pair of Bears!!
Congratulations!! The winners of our drawing are.... Peggy Duncan of Washington City and Linda Atkinson of Salt Lake City. Peggy's name was drawn for the Congreve Cube and DVD set! Linda's name was drawn for the Pair of Bears! Ladies, enjoy your gifts!!
Posted in Santa's Workshop - November 28-29, 2008 | No Comments >>
December 2, 2008
Bear Hugs for Hailey, Robert, & Dana #54
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Posted in Santa's Workshop - November 28-29, 2008 | No Comments >>
November 9, 2008
Relaxing with a giant peach smoothie
Hugs On The Go!!!
Hugs On The Go!!!
Hugs On The Go!!!
Hugs On The Go!!!
Hugs On The Go!!!
Hugs On The Go!!!
Hugs On The Go!!!
Hugs On The Go!!!
Hugs On The Go!!!
Hugs On The Go!!!
Hugs On The Go!!!
Free Hugs 4 Us in our booth at the What Women Want Expo in St. George, Utah!!! We had fun giving and receiving great hugs, making new friends, and reconnecting with some old friends!! We hope you enjoy the pictures! Sending love and hugs to everyone!
Posted in What Women Want Expo - October 2008 | No Comments >>
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