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Canfield hugger grasps onto new goal
He embraced 7,777 people in 24 hours this weekend.
Photo
Jeff Ondash, nicknamed Teddy McHuggin, hugs a tourist as Joshua Dietrich, left, holds a sign on The Strip in Las Vegas on Saturday, February 13, 2009. Ondash set the Guinness World Record for hugs in a 24 hour period and succeeded in giving 7,777 hugs.
STAFF/WIRE REPORT
LAS VEGAS — Now that Jeff Ondash has set the world record for hugging the most people in 24 hours, the Canfield native is embracing the idea of setting more world records.
Ondash broke the record standing outside the Paris Las Vegas hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip on Saturday night by passing out hugs under his alter ego Teddy McHuggin. The 51-year-old man passed out 7,777 hugs in 24 hours for a new world record.
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.”
Breaking the records isn’t about the recognition, though. Ondash said it’s more about contributing to a cause close to him.
More than 20 years ago, Ondash’s father and brother both died after complications from heart attacks.
Ondash had hopes of raising at least $10,000 through donations from people passing by the hotel and those who stopped to help him break the hug record. He was optimistic at the start of the hugging frenzy, but there is no word yet on whether he reached that goal.
Jeff Simon, president of Simco Management Corp. in Girard, has already made a substantial donation on behalf of the company. Neither Simon nor Ondash would disclose the amount of the donation, but it was enough to leave Ondash “floored.”
Ondash already held the record for most hugs in one hour with 1,205, according to Guinness World Records.
The previous record of 5,000 hugs in one day was set last year by Siobhan O’Connor in Dublin, Ireland, Guinness spokesman Philip Robertson said.
To break O’Connor’s mark, Ondash needed more than 208 hugs per hour — or about 31⁄2 hugs per minute. Ondash logged just over 700 hugs during his first hour of embraces on Friday night.
He said he embraced all kinds of people throughout Friday night and Saturday and was tired from being on his feet and not eating. But Ondash said he wasn’t planning to go to sleep right away.
“I’m going to go and enjoy the town tonight,” he said Saturday night.
Ondash said he did not expect Guinness Book of Records to certify his record for several weeks. The organization did not have a judge present at his attempt.
Instead, independent judges who tracked Ondash in shifts were to submit affidavits to the organization.