Free hugs! Father, daughters visit Hilton Head to ‘shrink the political divide’
Billy Park said he went through the first 50 years of his life without giving many hugs.
“I wasn’t a hugger at all,” he said. “I had a hard time hugging my mom.”
In the last three years, he’s given over 1,000.
“Now, I hug complete strangers.”
A Greenville native who spent his childhood vacationing on Hilton Head Island, Park and his daughters are staying in Sea Pines and making their way around island bike paths, beaches and grocery stores to encourage the island to “hug it out” with a free hug.
Park is taking a break on Hilton Head — which he calls his “happy place” — from his free-hugs tour of the United States.
You can catch him here with his daughters, ages 12 and 10, until Aug. 8. He’ll likely be wearing roller blades and playing music, his FREE HUGS sign in hand.
Hug it Out America, the organization Park started to raise awareness about his free hugs campaign, was founded in 2016 after the presidential election.
“The country was so divided. I saw the almost contempt for each other, and it made me very sad,” Park said. “I felt like the country needs a hug, and so I started doing it.
Park, who lives in Massachusetts, started his mission there three weeks ago and has given free hugs on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, as well as in Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Virginia and North Carolina.
His goal is to give free hugs in all 50 states, and although the mission started in response to politics, Park said he’s adamant that he doesn’t get into political conversations with the people he hugs.
“I seek out humanity. We talk about their kids, their jobs, their sports, their music. That’s a better picture of who they are. And nothing shakes a foundation more than politics,” Park said.
He said he typically gives hugs on bridges because “hugs make the best bridges” between people.
Although Hilton Head is connected to the world by bridges, Park said he probably won’t be on the Cross Island bridge or the bridges over Mackay’s Creek. He and his daughters intend to stay safe.
“I’m not going to deal with the car traffic,” he said.
