Love Your Melon to be established on campus

Students at the University of Richmond are in the process of establishing an ambassador organization for Love Your Melon as they continue to sell hats and t-shirts for money they can donate to children battling childhood cancer.

Love your Melon is an apparel company on a mission to end childhood cancer through therapeutic programming, immediate support and research.

The hats, which are sold for $30 each, are thick-knitted beanies, caps or visors and are available in multiple colors. In most cases, the apparel is bought online and advertised through social media or word of mouth.

The campus crew at Richmond, which is not yet an established student organization, has sold 45 hats this semester. Last year, the crew sold 14 hats.

“We are already building upon this organization,” said sophomore Mary Kate Jaromin, who is the vice president of Love Your Melon campus crew. “And it’s not even officially established on campus yet, which makes it very exciting. It leads me to believe that we will go places with this club and be successful.”

Since the crew is in the process of becoming established and can’t formally table in the Tyler Haynes Commons, sophomore Caitlin Greene, president of the campus crew, said the crew has used social media, such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, to publicize the coming organization.

Currently the crew has 12 members and plans to be an established organization on campus by the spring semester, but it’s still looking for anyone who would want to be invested in this organization.

Love Your Melon, which was founded by two college students at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, has 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.

Every year there are 15,000 children in the country given new cancer diagnoses and through funding from future product sales, Love Your Melon will continue to give hats to all of these kids, along with the 45,000 it has already committed too, and support these charities.

With the incentive to keep expanding this organization, Greene said, the organization has networked with colleges across the United States to start the campus ambassador organization, which is typically known as a sale representative on campus, to help be a part of this cause.

Senior Bethany DeStefano, a student ambassador for the campus crew, said the way that the organization has been raising money and making sales is through the student college groups that have publicized and helped market the national organization. Each ambassador group has a record of how many sales it makes and, as a result, the crew will receive prizes and more motivation to sell hats and gear.

To date, more than 2,500 college students at more than 225 different schools nationally have signed on as ambassadors to sell and donate hats and spread the mission of the organization to its own city, according to information provided by Love Your Melon.

On Monday, Oct. 28, the campus crew teamed up with a local organization and attended the Ronald McDonald House Event where they were able to donate hats, provided by the organization, to children, Greene said.

The members of the crew dressed up in Halloween costumes and participated in activities with families at the Ronald McDonald House, according to information provided by University of Richmond Love Your Melon. The members then donated specially designed hats, which were red and white striped, to all the children undergoing medical treatment in the area.

As the campus crew continues to reach various levels of credit, it will have different events to attend and competitions to participate in, Greene said.

“One hundred credits is a milestone for the crew because it will receive a package from Love Your Melon and get to attend the Superhero Household Donation,” Jaromin said.

The Superhero Household Donation is when crews dress up as superheroes and visit children and families in the community, whether that be at a local children’s hospital or household, and donate hats to children while providing a personal approach to giving a child a therapeutic experience.

“People are becoming more known about this organization because we have been blowing up social media and trying just to get in people’s ears,” Jaromin said, “and then from there, when we take off in spring, people will have an idea of what we are all about.”

The organization is trying to get as many people as it can, Greene said, but the ambassador program only allows 20 people, which is a national rule. Once the number of members rises, the crew will have to start having selections if people continue to join, she said.

“It is such a feel-good thing that people are attracted too and want to be apart of it in any capacity that they can,” said sophomore Mariah Ward, who is a student ambassador for the campus crew, “so whether that be buying a hat or becoming an ambassador.”

“Childhood cancer is huge deal and it’s nice to be able to help and support in anyway,"Jaromin said. "Love Your Melon gives you the unique opportunity to be hands on as we are have the chance to attend hospitals and be with children and their families, which makes them happy for that period of time.”

Contact reporter Catherine McTiernan at catherine.mctiernan@richmond.edu