While her hug may have only lasted a moment, the impression Taylor Swift left on Michael Wekall, Ryan Leander and David James has lingered, spurring a new online movement promoting community service and good deeds.
The guys from "A Hug From Taylor Swift," a website dedicated to completing video challenges from Swift, which resulted in the surprise performance last spring, are back again with teamhug.org.
"It grew out of us receiving challenges from Taylor Swift," Wekall said. "We really wanted everyone to have the same experience that we got to have, so we decided that we were going to get celebrities and ourselves to give out challenges to people with a prize at the end."
The basic idea is that each month a new celebrity-sponsored video challenge will be posted for viewers to complete by sending in their own creative response video. Wekall, Leander and James will then pick a winner, awarding them with a prize.
The first challenge, which was posted Sept. 30, is to do the most creative, charitable thing with $20, with a prize of one of five signed copies of Swift's new CD, "Speak Now," out Oct. 25.
Wekall said the first challenge was a platform for people to do whatever good deeds they wanted in their community.
"We set it at $20 because we didn't want people to have an unfair advantage over somebody because we are opening it up for people to do anything," Wekall said. "There are some people that wouldn't be able to afford much and some that could afford a ton, so it's not necessarily to say we want people to spend $20, but we don't want people to go over it."
All submissions for the first challenge are due by 5 p.m. Oct. 23.
When it comes to future challenges and what, or who, may be in store, the guys kept pretty quiet.
They did confirm, however, that they recently received a direct Twitter message from MTV's "The Buried Life" and are working on partnering with them for a future challenge.
"We have just been trying to contact other celebrities," Leander said. "I actually ran into Gene Chizik and told him about that. Hopefully, he will create a video challenge or one of the players."
After completing three of their own challenges from Swift, the team has been busy preparing for the launch of teamhug.org earlier this month.
Leander said they went to Nashville to promote teamhug.org and say goodbye to "A Hug From Taylor Swift."
"It changed my life\0xAD\0xAD--just where I enjoy it more, make the most out of every opportunity and to prove that if you have this idea and you really go for it and pursue it, then you can achieve it," Leander said.
Wekall said his experience with "A Hug From Taylor Swift" actually helped him land a job with a marketing/social media company in Atlanta.
Similar to "A Hug From Taylor Swift," the response to teamhug.org has been overwhelmingly positive.
"It's been pretty awesome," Wekall said. "It's been fun to kind of just do fun stuff and get people to do really cool, crazy stuff. I'm enjoying it."
Leander said from what he can see on Twitter and Facebook, the public is excited about the prospect of another chapter of video challenges from the team.
One of the cooler parts of the project for the guys is this is not just about them and their community anymore, but people all over.
"It's a really cool thing because you don't have to be in a certain area to do these things," Leander said. "You can do it wherever you live. You don't have to be in Auburn or Atlanta or Charlotte to do it, so that's what makes it cool and possible and catching."
To stay updated on new challenges and info from teamhug.org, visit their website, Twitter or Facebook page.
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