Allison Wagoner // Contributing writer
Photo submitted by Love Your Melon
The words “Love Your Melon” might evoke mental images of a juicy summertime harvest, but this organization’s goal couldn’t be more perfect for the winter season. This semester, Love Your Melon – MTSU Crew became an official organization on campus, the mission of which is to sell and donate hats to raise money and bring a smile to every child battling cancer in the United States.
Love Your Melon was founded in Minnesota in 2012 by two college students at the University of St. Thomas. MTSU is now a part of an ambassador program through LYM along with over 200 other colleges. The crew at MTSU is made up of 17 students. LYM is a buy one/give one organization. All products are made in the U.S. The knit beanies and hats are made in Minnesota, and other ball caps are made by Competition Headwear in Denver, Colorado. For every item purchased online, a child battling cancer receives a hat. Half of the proceeds from all products sold go to LYM’s partners, CureSearch and the Pinky Swear Foundation. This year LYM gave over 45,000 hats to children with cancer in the U.S.
A few crew members had the opportunity to go on an adventure in Nashville with a 3-year-old little girl battling a terminal cancer. They were able to go horseback riding and fly in a helicopter to see Nashville from an aerial view. Through LYM, the little girl also got to meet her favorite country artist, Kacey Musgraves.
The crew was able to attend her birthday party this month. They promoted LYM by giving out wristbands and stickers and sharing about the organization to other party-goers.
The MTSU crew is excited to continue going on adventures with other children and help give them and their families fun memories together.
“This organization allows me to take a step back and appreciate helping others, whether it be simply donating a hat to a child battling cancer, or showing up to an event and making memories with new people. I also hope that one day, a cure for cancer is found, and every fall and winter, I will be able to wear, or see someone wearing, an LYM beanie and proudly say I played a small but pivotal role in spreading such an important message, which is searching for a cure to end Childhood Cancer,” MTSU’s Crew Captain, Kevin Donovan, said.
Rebecca Woods, another crew member, said she loves to help.
“It’s an amazing feeling to help these people through their journey in a small way,” Woods said. “Being around these families has taught me how to appreciate life, through the good and bad times. I could honestly write a book about how LYM has impacted me.”
MTSU’s crew holds the top spot of all the colleges in the Southern region that are participating with LYM. Once the crew meets its quota of selling 100 items on the website, they will be able to visit local hospitals to give hats to children with cancer. Love Your Melon’s goal right now is to raise $1 million for children battling cancer.
“Two major lessons I have learned would be to stay positive no matter how hard you think you have it someone has it worse, and to live life to the fullest and never take a day for granted because life is much too short,” said crew member Victoria Hart.
Visit loveyourmelon.com to purchase and select Middle Tennessee State University at checkout to support the campus crew and Love Your Melon.
For more campus organization news, follow us at www.mtsusidelines.com, on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines and on Twitter at @MTSUSidelines
To contact lifestyles editor Rhiannon Gilbert, email lifestyles@mtsusidelines.com
“Love Your Melon” sounds like an incredible charity that provides a fantastic service to children struggling with cancer. Receiving a hat or beanie may sound like a small or insignificant gift, but I think that for these kids it is something special that they treasure. I’m thankful that no one in my immediate family has ever had cancer, but if they did I know that groups like this would be around to positively influence their lives. I am in awe of how brave kids like these can be; to be honest I don’t know if I would be able to deal with a disease like cancer without a lot of support from friends and family.
The fact that this organization has grown so much in the past few years shows what an impact it is having on these individuals. It helps restore my faith in humanity to see colleges like MTSU participate and lend their services to organizations like these. Hearing from volunteers involved in “Love Your Melon” makes me truly believe that they really love to interact with these kids. Hearing about the birthday party and the helicopter ride they took with one lucky kid brought warmth to my heart as well. Keep up the good work guys and gals!
With everything that is going on in the world and in our country (all the negative and unfortunate events), I appreciate seeing an organization that is focused on making kids with cancer happy. Kids have such a wild imagination and I hate that the negative things happening in the world are crushing it. Love Your Melon has the right mindset going on.
Love Your Melon was founded in Minnesota 3 years ago and now has over 200 universities following. I am proud to attend a school that associates with this kind of program. We only have 17 students that are apart of the LYM crew but every organization starts small. It only takes one to make a difference.
The growth of this organization puts faith back into humanity. It is so easy to help out. You don’t even have to leave your house. Everyone is looking at articles about LYM on their laptops or mobile devices already so it is easy to open a new tab and buy a hat on their website.
LYM is giving goods to kids going through cancer and I don’t see any other reason why you would not want to help put a smile back onto someone’s face.