By Kaitlin Adams

adamska@mnstate.edu

    In five short years, Love Your Melon has grown to a nationwide organization by selling apparel and donating hats to cancer patients for every item sold. It also provides donations to fight against pediatric cancer.

    Love Your Melon’s donation process is simple. Whenever a hat is purchased, 50 percent of the profits go toward pediatric cancer research and a hat is donated in Love Your Melon’s name to a pediatric cancer patient.

    When freshman Cassidy Wheeler first saw the hats on Instagram, they were not yet popular.

    “They are so cute, and you can buy so many different colors so you have a hat for each outfit,” Wheeler said. “The concept behind the Love Your Melon company is great. It’s awesome that they are giving back to cancer patients; that was the main reason that made me want to get one in the first place.”

    In addition to being able to purchase hats nationwide, students can and have formed campus crews all over the country. Abigail Johnson, president of the MSUM campus crew, explained just how much they have been growing.

    “We started the campus crew at MSUM in August of 2015,” Johnson said. “At the time we joined, there were about 150 crews across the nation. Currently there are 761 crews in every state in the U.S.”

    Many opportunities are opened through starting a campus crew, such as running and participating in donation events to impact children’s lives all over the nation. Love Your Melon provides unforgettable experiences to children battling cancer.

    “The campus crews plan events and donate beanies to children in hospitals, Ronald McDonald houses and their families,” Johnson said.

    To go the extra mile, “superhero adventures” have been created to provide even more unforgettable experiences for the children undergoing treatment.

    “A superhero adventure is a specially planned event for the child,” Johnson said. “This could be anything from a helicopter ride to a special dinner with friends. We had an event with a young girl where we surprised her with a spa night and pizza party.”

    Since Love Your Melon started in 2012, the number of hats given away and the number of donations have skyrocketed.

    “Love Your Melon has donated $2,543,259 to its nonprofit partners and donated over 91,347 beanies,” Johnson said.

    The donations can make a huge impact nationwide, as well as locally if you buy your Love Your Melon hat from the MSUM crew.

    “(If you) select MSUM Crew when purchasing a hat, it can provide more opportunities for this area to benefit the lives of those who are close to us,” Johnson said.

    Whether you buy from MSUM crew or straight from the organization, the hat purchase still goes toward a good cause.

    “It’s awesome that I can make an impact while simply purchasing a hat for my own personal interest,” Wheeler said.