Aaron Hurst is outgoing. He’s friendly. After just a brief conversation with him, it’s difficult to imagine he would have a hard time making friends.

That, however, is exactly what happened when he moved to Seattle from Brooklyn about 10 years ago. His wife, Kara, had just landed her “dream job” as Amazon’s chief sustainability officer, and she quickly found a social community through work.

As a “trailing spouse” and entrepreneur, Aaron did not.

“I was very much on an island,” he recalls. “It was definitely a major challenge for me.”

That experience stuck with him. He recently founded the US Chamber of Connection, a Seattle nonprofit that seeks to create social ties among newcomers to Seattle. The organization will hold its first Seattle Welcome Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 8 at Town Hall Seattle. Subsequent events are slated for March 1, April 19, and May 17, also at Town Hall. Cost is $20.

Hurst says he thinks the infamous “Seattle Freeze” is real, though he notes that declining connection and trust have become national issues because of political divisiveness and social segregation. It’s just more acute in Seattle, a city that 60,000 people move to each year. He’s invited 200 people over for dinners the last six months to talk about their experiences.

“Being lonely is the same as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It’s horrible for our health,” says Hurst, noting that studies show that lonely people are $3,000 less productive annually and spend more on health care. “We all see firsthand like what’s happening with the division in our country, and what’s happening when we can’t come together. So, those are national issues. They just happen to be pretty severe within Seattle.”

Taylor Black — another extrovert, a Seattle native, and a “collaborator” on the launch of the US Chamber of Connection — says he personally hasn’t experienced the Freeze, but knows many who have. He met Hurst when he was hosting “soup nights” to bring people together. 

“We thought it would be great to build connection between people of all sorts,” says Black, director of AI and Venture Ecosystems at Microsoft. “Not around a particular cause, not around a particular walk of life, but between neighbors, between people who meet on the street or in the coffee shop, and any other place that you have connection.”

The group is open to anyone seeking social connection, though it is aimed at newcomers, including students and senior citizens. In other words, it’s more than just a business networking group. It is also creating neighborhood-specific “clubhouses” in Ballard, Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, the University District, Fremont and downtown Seattle, with more planned. Every two weeks, meet-ups will be scheduled in bars or cafes in each of those neighborhoods.

Hurst plans to take the group national, with Washington, D.C., its second city. 

To change the perception of the Freeze, the group created a bear mascot that travels around the city dispensing hugs. “It took off like crazy. People see the bear and hug it, and just giggle like they’re 3 years old again,” Hurst says.

“Goodbye Seattle Freeze. Hello Seattle bear hug.”

More information about the group can be found at its website.