It’s hard to make friends as an adult. This is a phrase Melissa Meyer, development assistant of Friends of Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks hears time and time again— from attendees of the bar she tends in the evening, or from professionals in the young adult world.
Meyer and her colleagues at Friends of Metro Parks are trying to do their part to change this, with a “Make a Friend” event series created to combat loneliness and foster connections over shared interests.
The fourth event of its kind, Make A Friend: Coffee & Dogs, will be July 18 at 9 a.m. at Quarry Trails Metro Park. The coffee date with a dog offers dog owners and dog lovers the opportunity to connect over coffee and shared interests. Dogs are encouraged, but not required. Participants can meet at Bada Bean parking lot, with a morning walk to the waterfall and around the lake at Quarry Trails to follow.
Make A Friend: Coffee & Dogs is part of the “Make A Friend” event series.
“There’s a lot of introverts in this world. One thing I hear a lot is that it’s hard to make friends as an adult,” Meyer said. “You just need to find a place where you can make friends that aligns with your interests and is not necessarily a bar or a club.”
As first detailed in a 2023 study by the office of U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, loneliness and isolation carry health impacts with comparisons to smoking 15 cigarettes a day among other critical health issues, as The Dispatch previously reported.
In 2024, during a Columbus Metropolitan Club discussion on loneliness, health officials and doctors commented on the potential health impacts, saying that Ohio’s “loneliness epidemic” likely predates COVID-19.
Sometimes making friends as an adult is hard.
“That’s what we are trying to do with a make a friend series, is increase connections between people. Whether those are romantic connections or not, sometimes people just need a friend,” Meyer said.
“Make a Friend” event series
The “Make a Friend” series started off with a tangentially related event last fall focused on singles. The singles sunset stroll in October at Scioto Audubon Metro Park, was a collaboration between Friends of Metro Parks and local matchmaker Rachel Joy Barehl.
Friends of Metro Parks is a nonprofit organization that helps support the metro parks. It is not the metro parks organization themselves, but a separate nonprofit.
The mild success of that event, Meyer said, promoted her and her team to continue events of the kind, but with a broadened scope for general friendship connections.
She explained this goal of creating events to foster connections and promote friendships is her personal passion project, although the “Make a Friend” series was a group effort.
The second event was in February with gourmet s’mores at Highbanks Metro Park. The nonprofit also hosted a craft night in February as well.
“We had 20 people come out for the gourmet smores. It was really nice and it was well-attended for the second time we’ve done something like that,” Meyer said. “We advertised it and people showed up and that was shocking. I got excited about it and wanted to keep doing it.”
Prior to the event, Meyer feared— since it was geared toward introverts— it would be difficult to spark conversations among people. Meyer had a few of her extrovert friends attend in case they needed to help initiate conversations. But she didn’t need them. The people at the event sparked conversations among themselves.
Meyer explained that bars can be a third space, a term used to refer to informal gathering spaces for people, especially those looking to make connections. But, for those that don’t enjoy drinking, or struggle with a bar environment that calls for an extroverted personality, the bar is not always a comfortable place to make new friends.
As Meyer explained, it’s not unusual for young adults to feel unsafe when trying to make friends at a bar or nightclub.
“If you are going to a wholesome ‘get coffee with your dog,’ make some crafts or eat some s’mores event you are not putting yourself in a place that feels as dangerous as going out and meeting people at a bar or something like that,” Meyer said.
Plus, these ‘third places’ or ‘third spaces’ are disappearing.
Meyer hopes metro parks can fill the gap left by missing third spaces; and meet the needs of those looking to create friendships, outside of a bar or local nightlife.
“It’s a public area, it’s free for everyone, it’s a great place to go if you want to meet up with a friend or meet new people,” Meyer said.
She added, the “Make a Friend” series is additionally helpful if you need someone to facilitate or a reason to be at the park in the first place.
What’s the age range?
The typical age range of individuals in attendance for these events has fluctuated, averaging somewhere between 20 and 40, according to Meyer.
Meyer explained if these events take off, she hopes to do more focused events for singles, or specific age ranges. They want to do more events in the series, with the potential discussion of a quarterly event. There is nothing on schedule, however, at this point in time.
For the coffee and dogs event on July 18, there is no age range, nor is the event limited to singles.
“I think that you can make connections between generations, so it’s really open up to anybody. Everyone needs more friends,” Meyer said.
Dispatch reporter Ella Diehl can be reached at ediehl@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Metro Parks hosting dog event to combat loneliness, make friends
Reporting by Ella Diehl, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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By Ella Diehl, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
