Did you get a hug today?
Love flowed fast in Provo on Saturday (August 25) night when 765 people stood in line to hug 18-year-old Jordan Pearce in an attempt to break the world's record for most hugs given to one person in an hour. The event was part of the LDS Church's Edgemont North Stake Super Activity.
The previous record was 612 hugs in an hour, as recorded by Guinness World Records, said Charles Abbott, organizer of the stake event and grandfather to Pearce. The stake had hoped to make a new record of 1,000 people, but 30 minutes in, ran out of people at 765.
"I feel like I'm on cloud nine," Pearce said after being hugged for the last time.
Breaking the record turned out to require a lot of endurance as Pearce constantly knelt to hug hundreds of children in the line, and stretched to hug people taller than herself.
Standing under a canopy, facing the sun and a huge line of people, Pearce had worked up, well, a glisten.
"I was getting pretty glistening," she said.
Asked before the event what was the appropriate training for breaking a hugging record, Pearce said "I'm not entirely sure." She said she had no boyfriend to get jealous and added that the event would "be my allotment of hugs for the year."
A Hinckley scholar at BYU who will be a junior after her first semester because of advanced placement credits, Pearce said breaking a world record had been her idea. Abbott, her grandfather, had been a world record holder in his youth and Pearce said she thought it would be great to follow in his footsteps.
Abbott said that in 1973 at a church activity, he organized a group to flip the then-world's largest pancake.
"We had four or five flops before we had a flip," he said with a laugh, noting that while some parents felt breaking the record was frivolous, he wanted to teach the youth that "with perseverance they can accomplish anything they want to do."
Breaking the record on Saturday took months of planning. The family had to apply to Guinness World Records with detailed plans. Once those plans were approved, the event had to be overseen by two prominent members of the community, and media coverage was required.
On Saturday, 4th District Judge Lynn Davis and Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, (R-Provo) oversaw the competition, each holding a counter to tally the number of people who hugged Pearce. Pearce's neighbor, Theresa Welker, served as a third judge. The rules stipulate that each hug must be genuine, with arms and hands wrapped around the person.
In addition, each person was only allowed to hug once, and Pearce was required to stand in the same place during the event. To ensure no double-hugging, everyone who hugged Pearce was stamped on their right hand. The new record will not be final until approved by Guinness World Records, a process that requires photographs, film footage and signed witnesses.
Pulling it off was not easy. Bramble and Davis came up with different totals because Davis felt several little children whose arms did not wrap around Pearce should not count. The rules require the lowest count to be used.
Many people who came through the line holding things -- children, cotton candy, drinks. To make sure the hug counted, and to help the line go faster, Pearce's grandmother, Oranee Abbott, scooped babies, candy and sodas from those in line, passing them back after their hug was completed.
One man spilled a drink on Pearce. A little girl refused to let go of her blue sucker, and just as the event was ending, one little boy kicked and screamed, not wanting to hug a stranger.
But more difficult than those problems was encouraging people to let go of Pearce. With family, friends, cousins and neighbors in the line, many lingered too long.
"Faster, faster, come on, faster," said Oranee Abbott, repeating the mantra hundreds of times as she organized the line approaching her granddaughter.
"She's hugging everyone like she means it," said one woman with a laugh, while a man in line yelled out "Let's move, people, let's move!"
"This is exciting," said Morgan Coleman, who, as the 613th person hugged, officially broke the record.
"Now we can Google you," said his wife, Char.
Ryan Goodwin, as the 765th person in line, was the last person to hug Pearce. "I feel like a hug," he said when asked how he felt making the record books.
The woman standing next to him wrapped her arms around him.
