HugNation: A Living Legacy of Love and Optimism Created on the Web

Adorned in shocking pink hair and an amazingly positive attitude to life and all the world's woes, John Styn and his gray-haired 94-year-old grandfather Caleb Shikles, began a crusade to pass love across the internet with their HugNation website. Yahoo News brought attention to a very positive and unique place on the web.

Caleb was an extremely upbeat Baptist preacher who also fought for civil rights and against war. He worked with Martin Luther King for a short while. Until his passing on March 29th of 2007, together he and his grandson worked on a project that spread love and goodwill to anyone who came to the HugNation site to join in the live chat.

With the death of Caleb's wife, John spent more time with his grandfather. John, also known as Halcyon on his HugNation website, realized his grandfather had something special to offer a world often caught up in its own problems and emptiness. They began a website dedicated to the positive message, "the world would rather hug you than hurt you." They created HugNation.

No stranger to live webcams, or how to bring in the viewers, John had won a 2000 Webby Award for "Best Personal Website". The website is cockybastard.com.

Caleb spread the word that "Hug, you feel the heartbeat, you feel this person." and the pair encouraged people to connect with each other both via webcast virtual hugs and in person. The beauty of the website of course being, that they could reach out to anyone on the planet with computer and internet access.

The virtual chat doors are open all the time. Everyone is welcomed with open arms. With the death of his eternally optimistic grandfather, the hosted live Group Hug webcast, is now lead by an upbeat Halcyon himself. It is every Tuesday 1 P.M. Pacific Time.

People joining the chat, freely offer and ask for needed virtual hugs. The atmosphere is contagious and uplifting, particularly when hosted by the positive John Halcyon himself. He learned well from his grandfather and is continuing to spread the message of love around.

HugNation has made live-in-person appearances encouraging people to reach out to each other. They have traveled to Burning Man, and a Huggable Valentine's Day Gathering. There are plans for a border to border trip from Tijuana to Vancouver. The dates for the trip have not been announced yet. John and HugNation are taking suggestions for stops along the way, when they make the trip while traveling in their hot pink HugNation camper.

HugNation received a 2007 People's Choice Webby Award for the Best Video Reality Show. Caleb passed on just before they received the nomination, but the legacy John and his grandfather Caleb Shikle created, lives on. Caleb's presence is still there.

Yahoo News, Love Warriors, http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/42/love-warriors
http://www.hugnation.com/