This Is The Story Behind Doylestown's Spontaneous Hugger

DOYLESTOWN, PA — You may already know Edie Weinstein. In fact, you may have already hugged her.

Weinstein loves hugs. So much so that she's made it her mission for the past five years to hug as many strangers as possible. She's behind the Hugmobsters Armed With Love movement, and is often seen holding her sign, giving free hugs around Doylestown.

It's not really just because she enjoys hugs (which of course she does).

"Part of my passion and purpose is to bring people together. I'm a connector and hugs are probably among the best ways to bridge those gaps," Weinstein said.

This weekend, to celebrate her 61st birthday, Weinstein will partake in a "happy birthday hug stroll" Sunday, Oct. 13 in Doylestown from 2 to 4 p.m. She'll start the hug stroll at State and Main streets, around the Starbucks parking lot.

If you see her holding her sign feel free to hug her. But she'll probably ask you first.

Weinstein, a therapist by profession, said she became inspired to spread hugs in 2014. She and a group of friends held a "hug mob" at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.

"We unleashed ourselves at noon," Weinstein recalled. One friend walked around the station playing Supertramp's "Give a Little Bit" while the group solicited hugs from strangers.

(You can see a video of this hug mob below.)

What happened next transformed Weinstein's "hug mob" to literally a life-saving effort.

An Iraq war veteran approached them for a hug, saying he was suicidal due to survivor's guilt. He said he thought about ending his life because he was the only one in his platoon to survive. Once he hugged them, he went off to hug others. The impact the hugs had on him inspired her to keep hugging.

Soon after, hugs saved her life, too, but in a different way.

Weinstein suffered a heart attack and underwent surgery at Doylestown Hospital. As part of her cardiac rehab, she had to walk.

"I walked around town. I thought, why don't I combine the hugging with the walking?"

That's how the "Free Hug Strolls" in Doylestown began. Sometimes friends would join her.

"People started calling us hugmobsters," Weinstein said, adding she didn't like the association with violence, so she tacked on the "armed with love" at the end.

The hugging and the walking helped her recover from her heart attack.

"Hugs may have saved that veteran's life and it certainly saved mine," Weinstein said.

In Doylestown, a typical hugging event goes like this: She'll start out by hugging people as they cross the street near the Starbucks. She'll make her way around town and stop by some businesses, where the hugs continue.

Don't worry, though. If you see Weinstein and don't want a hug, she's not offended.

"I always ask first," she said. And when people say no, well that's just fine. "Some people just don't want to be touched, and I respect that."

In general, though, most people are open to the spontaneous hugging and say yes, she said.

Hugging not only brings people together, but it satisfies the human need for touch and to be close to people, Weinstein noted.

"Babies fail to thrive if they don't receive enough nurturing touch. So too do adults. People smile, laugh and sometimes cry when we hug. Some have said they haven't been hugged for years. My goal is to give people something conscious and concrete to do when they feel helpless to make positive change occur in the world," she said.

Her local hugging events happen on special occasions, like her birthday and her cardio-versary — the anniversary of her heart attack, as she calls it. She's also out during vigils, rallies, and other events.

But the hugging events aren't always planned.

"I always have my signs in the car in case I want to hug spontaneously. I do it anywhere and everywhere I can," she said.

She's hugged all along the East Coast, including in Virginia, Delaware, New York, New Jersey and beyond. Last year, she hugged her way across Ireland.

"What I have found is that hugging brings people together across all divides. When I hug people, I don't know what their politics are, who they voted for, their religion, sexual preference, culture, unless they tell me."

You can watch Weinstein's 2014 hug mob in Philadelphia here: