A message we all could use right now is being printed on t-shirts in West Palm Beach: 'The world needs more hugs'
"There is just an absurd amount of people that are walking around in their daily life that they don't feel like they're really held and loved and connected to a lot of the humans around them," said Josh Walker, creator of hugsandstories.com.
Walker came up with the idea to create 'The world needs more hugs' shirts after wearing his own shirts emblazoned with the words ‘free hugs’ every day for a year from 2016-2017.
"I'm just going to more or less just wear the shirts every day, see what types of stories and experiences come from that," he said. "It just kind of domino effected from there."
Now, he wants everyone to be able to share that message.
"As the shirts go out, people begin to take just small simple pictures showing them wearing the shirt and really just send in stories of good things happening around them," Walker said.
Shea Stockman makes words wearable at Cyan Shores Screen Printing. He's printing Walker's t-shirts.
“People just need more hugs," Stockman said. "We need more connection with each other.”
$5 from each shirt will go toward a holiday event for Inner City Innovators, which empowers youth in an effort to end gun violence in West Palm.
"Show the young people in our community what positivity looks like," said Ricky Aiken, founder of Inner City Innovators. "It shows that you don’t have to live your life a certain way. You can create the connection you want to make in the world.”
Matthew Goldstein and a few others have agreed to match funds up to $7,500.
“Sometimes if you just look at it from that human level and give somebody a hug, that connection is there and you never know who you’re helping," Goldstein said.
To pre-order a t-shirt: https://hugsandstories.com/
To donate to Inner City Innovators' holiday celebration: https://www.gofundme.com/bddjj-christmas-for-all-kids?fbclid=IwAR3u1zZAxRnkHiTZFWSQadN7kybLczgLoScouC4utMl914wSq5nfueI3Fj4