For more details about any of the following events or activities, please see our About page.
Strolling
Our official stroll day schedule is now set. Our goal is to have at least one team on campus for about an hour and a half every Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday when it’s not raining. Because wet dogs aren’t nearly as much fun plus they really don’t smell great. When we are on campus for a stroll, one team is always at “Blue’s Corner”, which is between Wilson and the Undergraduate Libraries. Our social media is updated with the times and names of the scheduled pup(s) before each stroll. Our social media accounts – Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit in r/HAPPEE_HugsandPups – are linked on the bottom right of our website pages.
Here are some pictures from our time on campus.
Chalking Walks
Every now and then, we head to campus – especially near the end of student breaks – and leave little notes of love and encouragement on walkways. Some volunteers are serious artists! But even those of us who aren’t nearly as talented in that area still spread the chalked love and it’s always fun to see some of our messages show up on students’ public Instagram accounts.
Painting Rocks
Another way we scatter love is by painting rocks with positive and inspirational messages to leave around campus to be found by students. Volunteers can paint rocks at home or in a group and then put them around campus by themselves or another volunteer can collect them and “hide” them around campus. Spoiler: we don’t “hide” them very well. 😉
Special Events
We partner with other community and student groups whenever possible, to better serve the UNC-Chapel Hill community. During the 2022-2023 school year, we held a party for our first birthday – in response to student request – as well as several “stations activities” such as writing thank you cards (“Who Makes You HAPPEE?”) that we paid postage for and mailed on their behalf and allowing students to paint rocks themselves, to keep, give away, “hide” around campus, or leave with us to hide (“You Rock!”). Our purpose in all of our Special Events is to provide opportunities for students to do something fun and meaningful and in doing so, build a student community to promote mental wellness even when we aren’t around with our Hugs and Pups. Sometimes they even learn something that will support their mental health, such as a new strategy to fight depression or anxiety.
We often partner with student and community organizations. In the past, we’ve partnered with: Healthy Heels, Paws with a Cause (a/k/a Helping Paws), UNC-CH Mental Health Ambassadors, Active Minds at Carolina, Arts Everywhere, the International Student Center, CUAB, UNC’s Walk.Support.Glow, and various UNC schools, dorms, and Greek organizations.
