What is Love Your Melon? Love Your Melon is a non-profit organization that provides hats for children battling cancer. Like TOMS, Love Your Melon uses a “one for one” system and donates one hat for each hat purchased. When a campus crew sells 100 hats, crew members dress up as superheroes and distribute these hats at a local children’s hospital.
Members: Lauren Leedberg, Jordan Patterson, Rebecca Varney, Shruti Kansara
Captain: Conor Brosnan
Fun Fact: Has two cats
Graduation Year: 2018
Major/Minor: International Business/French
Hometown: Holyoke, MA
Student Involvement: Bryant University Love your Melon Campus Crew, Franco BU, International Business Association
Favorite thing about Bryant? The community / family atmosphere that is naturally given off by all students.
Tell us a little about the clubs you have started: Love Your Melon is a non-profit organization founded and run by college students around the country. With their unique buy-one-give-one program, every hat that they sell they will donate another warm beanie to a child who is battling cancer. In order to spread the word about their cause, they have ambassadors promote awareness about their mission on college campuses around the country. I decided that because of how great the cause that this organization works for is, that I would initiate the campus ambassador crew at Bryant University. That way we could help put smiles on the faces of the beautiful children fighting one of the world’s worst diseases.
What inspired you to start this club? What inspired me to start this club on Bryant’s campus was how great of a mission this organization has. Everyone knows someone who has fought cancer, and personally I have family members and friends who have had this disease, and a few who have unfortunately not survived. I am also very active in jobs and community service activities that revolve around children. Through working full time in the summer at a camp, and by being a big brother for Big Brothers and Big Sisters, I have seen how amazing and full of potential a child’s life is. And knowing that these innocent children are going through something so terrible made me want to do something to help. Once I found out about Love Your Melon, the only thing I could think of was how amazing it would be if I could help a child with something as simple as putting a smile on their face. Giving them a sense of inspiration and happiness by dressing up as a superhero and giving them a hat can help the children’s emotional spirits and put a smile on their face.
Do you plan on doing this every year? I plan on doing this until every year until I graduate. Unfortunately, when I graduate I will no longer be able to participate because it is an organization completely run by college students. However, I hope by this time we will have enough members that someone else can lead this great cause.
Why should people be a part of this? People should be a part of this because it is such a great cause. No one deserves to have cancer, especially not children. The emotional toll that this takes on the children is immense, and knowing that because of the hat that you personally handed to a sick child caused them to feel a sense of joy in such a miserable and frightening part of their young lives is a feeling that is more than rewarding. By hand-delivering these hats to the kids, we can raise their spirits and show them that everyone is rooting for them and will be supporting them until they conquer the disease.
Don’t like hats? Not a problem! LYM also sells caps and shirts!
Please remember to select Bryant Crew during checkout!