Area teen embraces convention
Fri, Aug 29, 2008 
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BY PETER DAINING
pdaining@grandhaventribune.com
While Sen. Barack Obama and his Democratic cohorts gave speeches, shook hands and put on smiles to showcase their personality at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, a college student from Ferrysburg did the same on the city's streets.
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Except Meryl Wisner, 18, used hugs.
The 2007 Grand Haven High School graduate was featured in several Colorado newspapers and a Boston Globe online video for giving out free hugs to strangers in a downtown Denver mall this week during the Democratic National Convention.
"There's so much stress on how we need to unite, and what better way then giving away hugs?" Wisner told reporters.
Wisner heads back this weekend to Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., for her sophomore year after working this summer as an intern in Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's office.
She has been working with other interns to make the DNC as environmentally friendly as possible. During the convention, she's been responsible for checking the recycling centers and bicycle racks and making sure everything is in order.
On her day off this week, Wisner decided to take a homemade "free hugs" sign to the 16th Street Mall and give away hugs.
Wisner quickly became a popular sidewalk spectacle. More than 300 people accepted her invitation in around two hours, she said.
Her hug giveaway idea originated with an Australian YouTube video, and she saw another hugger during a visit to Paris.
"The first time she saw that being done, she thought it was great fun," said Wisner's mom, Amy Wisner. "She's pretty outgoing and vivacious and will talk to anyone, and I think this summer has just made her more so."
Wisner also saw some of the keynote speakers this week, including Ted Kennedy, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama.
Like most of her family members, Wisner already considers herself a life-long Democrat. She saw Al Gore speak when she was 10, but really got hooked on politics after hearing Gov. Jennifer Granholm speak in Muskegon several years ago, her mother said.
"We used to joke with her that, because of where we live (in West Michigan), if you were a Democrat you must be related to our family," Amy Wisner said.
Now that she's finally able to vote, Meryl Wisner said she is thrilled to be in the center of the action in Denver. And although she's already securely a Democrat, she has no problem hugging a Republican.
"Hugs are nonpartisan," she said. "I'll hug anybody."
On the Net:
www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1740017427
