Need a hug? Then big-hearted Jeff Ondash is your man.
The 51-year-old Ohio man embraced the Valentine’s Day spirit faster than anyone before — passionately embracing 7,777 hugs in 24 hours for a new world record. Jeff Ondash, who sought the squeezes under the costumed alter ego Teddy McHuggin, broke the record Saturday night outside the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
In his quest, Ondash also broke another record: 1,205 hugs in one hour- another world record.
Ondash did it all to raise money for the American Heart Association. He said that all of his hugs helped raise awareness of America’s Heart Month, a cause especially important to him because his father and brother died of heart problems.
Ondash’s Las Vegas feat smashed the record 5,000 hugs in one day previously set by Siobhan O’Connor in Dublin Ireland.