![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/images_news_NovisSad-Bear-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe clean-cut teens with warm hugs and bright smiles brought a breath of fresh air to a downtown area filled with lazy outdoor cafes, rip-off name-brand clothing shops such as the \u201cUndercover Colors of Benneton,\u201d and sidewalk souvenir vendors hawking obscenity-covered refrigerator magnets.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been hugged in a long time,\u201d she said, tears running down her cheek.<\/p>\n Most passersby were all smiles.<\/p>\n The bear ambled on thick elevated paws down the street, giving hugs to wide-eyed children, delighted women, and red-faced but clearly pleased men.<\/p>\n After getting a hug, a boy of about 10 pushed his grandmother into the bear\u2019s arms and gestured for his mother, seated at an umbrella-covered table at an outdoor cafe cloaked in cigarette smoke, to join them.<\/p>\n After giving 200 hugs in an hour, Dario Brati\u0107 says, \u201cI am going to explode from happiness.”<\/p>\n<\/a>An elderly woman wept after receiving a hug from the bear, followed by tight hugs from two teenage girls.<\/p>\n<\/a>Two young woman distributing advertising brochures stopped their work to hug the bear and pose for selfies with their cell phones.<\/p>\n<\/a>A group of four young men, smartly dressed in suits and ties, each accepted a hug and, faces beaming, pulled out their cell phones to take photos.<\/p>\n<\/a>