Sunday, February 14, 2010

  Most Hugs Given in 24 Hours - world record set by Jeff Ondash

  LAS VEGAS, NV, USA -- Jeff Ondash , 51, of Canfield, Ohio, has embraced the Valentine’s Day spirit faster than anyone before, giving 7,777 hugs in 24 hours, raising money for the American Heart Association , and setting the new world record for the Most Hugs Given in 24 Hours .
 Photo: Jeff Odnash, nicknamed Teddy McHuggin, hugs a tourist on the The Strip on his way to setting the World Record for most hugs in a 24-hour period in Las Vegas. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Laura Rauch
  ( enlarge photo )

   "When you hug somebody, they all walk away from each other smiling," Ondash said. "They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away; a hug a day - it’s just fun."

Jeff Ondash , who sought the squeezes under the costumed alter ego Teddy McHuggin , broke the world record for the Most Hugs Given in 24 Hours Saturday night outside the Paris Las Vegas hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

The previous Guinness world record for the Most Hugs Given in 24 Hours is 5,000 hugs in one day and was set last year by Siobhan O'Connor in Dublin, Ireland.

Guinness World Records said Jeff Ondash of Canfield, Ohio, already holds the Guinness World Record for most hugs given in one hour , with 1,205. That record was set in May 2008 in Boardman, Ohio.

 Ondash said he wanted to become the world’s hugging champion to raise money for the American Heart Association during American Heart month. The cause is important to him because his brother and father both died relatively young because of heart problems, he said.

Ondash says he, as McHuggin, is now eyeing both the world’s longest single hug - currently 24 hours and 1 second - and breaking his current two records consecutively, which he said was "unheard of."

   "I don’t even know if I can do that but I’m going to attempt it," Ondash said. "It’s like climbing Mount Everest twice - same thing."

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