Walking around the concourse of the Bryce Jordan Center on THON weekend can be like a box of chocolates —  you just never know what you’re going to get when you’re out there.

Currently, there’s a pair of guys walking around with an attention-attracting sign. One side of the poster board reads “Free Hugs” while the other says “Card Tricks.” The two friends, Cam Young and Tyler Resch, are sophomores from Penn State Hazleton, and they’ve been pretty busy during THON.

“We’re just walking around giving people smiles,” Resch said. Their idea to do this was pretty spontaneous, as they decided to wander the concourse earlier this afternoon.

Young has given more than 1,000 free hugs at this point and the number is rapidly growing (he’s keeping track). At the time of our chat, he amassed 1,209. Let’s just take a moment to recognize how ridiculous that number is — I’m sure there are some duplicates in there somewhere, but that is an insane amount of hugs.

Young is a special events THON captain for Hazleton and he simply just wants to see how many hugs he can get while he’s here. The free hugs campaign wasn’t even Young’s idea originally.

“Actually, he [Resch] did it last year, but his girlfriend said no for this year,” Young said. “So I took over the free hugs here.” Now, Young is reaping all the benefits this year at THON.

His partner in crime, Resch, is performing card tricks and blowing spectators’ minds as he moves along the concourse. After seeing him in action showing his magic to a couple different people, I can confirm — he’s good. If you can, go find Resch and Young and ask to see any of his card tricks.

“I started doing card tricks in my senior year of high school, so it’s been about three years,” Resch said. He simply started doing tricks just to have fun.

Resch wasn’t too disappointed that he couldn’t continue giving out free hugs at THON this year. “I still got my card tricks, so I’m alright with it,” Resch said. He was happy to hand the reigns over to Young for this year. If you happen to find yourself out in the concourse at anytime, keep an eye out for these two. You surely will not be disappointed.