The Love Your Melon brand has not only recently caught attention all over college campuses, but has also gained national recognition from outlets like “The Today Show” and “Good Morning America.”
The apparel brand started with just two college students from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota with a goal of putting a hat on every child battling with cancer in the country.
The organization is partnered with The Pinky Swear Foundation to provide immediate support for children battling cancer and with CureSearch for Children’s Cancer to fund research initiatives to beat childhood cancer completely.
Today, the group has extended their mission to other college campuses by having student ambassadors spread the word in their own towns and cities.
The Love Your Melon Crew at WCU started right before the fall semester of 2015, and soon after began recruiting.
Although the Love Your Melon Crew at West Chester is not officially affiliated with the university, the group has obtained their max number of 20 students allowed in their crew that consists of an executive board and crew members.
Although the group is small, they do have a waitlist and volunteer list for people who are interested in getting involved.
The Love Your Melon Crew at West Chester has recently been in contact with several campus organizations that are interested in working with them, helping the group get involved with campus.
Love Your Melon Crew at West Chester holds meeting once to twice a month where the group discusses upcoming events, future goals dealing with sales and social media follows, organize household or hospital visits to children with cancer, childhood cancer centers or hospitals and discuss new ideas to help better their crew and awareness.
Junior accounting major April Czekaj, who has been a crew member since October of 2015, describes their meetings as “a time to regroup to get together and put together new ideas and strategies.”
The crew recently participated in West Chester’s Mini Thon by not only setting up an information table at the event, but also raising money for the cause in order to set up a table.
“At our table, we explained to the guests of the Mini Thon what Love Your Melon is, raffled off 2 Love Your Melon beanies, gave away Love Your Melon items like wristbands and stickers, and also handed out sweet treats,” said Czekaj.
With funding from product sales in 2015, Love Your Melon, the organization as a whole, donated one million dollars to CureSearch and The Pinky Swear Foundation equally.
Since the new year, the numbers have continued to raise, and the group as a whole hopes to have another amazing year in the fight against childhood cancer.
Czekaj touched on her personal experience being a Love Your Melon member at West Chester.
“I joined LYM to give back. So many children have simple pleasures of being a child taken away from them too fast,” said Czekaj. “Joining LYM helped me not only come together with people for a common cause, but also know that what I am doing and working towards will hopefully be part of the reason that a cure for cancer will be found. We as a crew want to make a difference in the lives of children battling cancer and we are able with help of Love Your Melon.”
For those interested in getting involved, they can contact the Love Your Melon at West Chester crew captain Kelly Diamond at KD803175@wcupa.edu.
As said before, there is a waitlist and volunteer list that any student can be added to which allows you to still stay connected with the West Chester crew and Love Your Melon.
Sunny Morgan is a first-year pre-major student. They can be reached at SM848270@wcupa.edu @sunnyymorgg