On February 1st, Love Your Melon hosted an on-campus event where members (and even non-members) gathered together to create mini beanies for a young girl, Nathalia. Nathalia was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma – a very rare bone cancer. We were given the opportunity to attend and participate in the event, along with being able to interview one of the Co-Presidents, Meghan Roy, to give us more information about the event and why it is important to Love Your Melon.
HC: What is Love Your Melon?
MR: In 2012, Love Your Melon was founded by two students in an Entrepreneurship class at the University of St. Thomas [in Minnesota]. It started with the simple idea of putting a hat on every child battling cancer in America. After achieving the original goal of giving 45,000 hats, Love Your Melon set a new goal of giving 1 million dollars to pediatric cancer research, and to provide immediate support to children and their families. To date, they have given over 4.7 million dollars to the fight against pediatric cancer and over 149,000 hats to children battling cancer. 50% of net profit from the sale of all Love Your Melon products is given to the Love Your Melon Fund to support their non-profit partners.
HC: Why did you decide to become Co-President of Bryant LYM?
MR: I joined LYM first semester of my sophomore year. I quickly fell in love with the organization and everything it stood for. I became close with the President at the time, Liz Stiles, who founded the club on campus. Before she graduated last spring, she was worried about the club dying out on campus because the entire E-board was graduating. I knew then that I had the passion and determination to take on the role of president. I knew I wanted my close friend, Courtney McGuinness, who had joined with me my sophomore year and had the same passion for LYM as me, to also be on the E-Board. Going into my senior year I was not sure about taking on such a large role, but then Liz presented the idea of having co-presidents. It was the perfect fit for both of us and I do not know what I would do without Courtney by my side.
HC: Could you tell us about Beanies for Nathalia?
MR: Nathalia is 12 years old and has been diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. It was recently discovered that she only has a few weeks left to live. Nat loves being creative and crafting. She has been involved with LYM for quite some time. One day she made mini beanies and gave them to the LYM team. When LYM heard about her diagnosis, they knew exactly how to send love to her. So, they started collecting mini beanies with the idea to send them all to her.
HC: Why do you decide to host Beanies for Nathalia?
MR: My E-Board and I wanted to host a fun event to kick off the spring semester. Beanies for Nathalia quickly gained a lot of attention on social media and we knew we wanted to join in on the movement.
HC: What kind of message do you hope your members/others who participated take away from Beanies for Natalie?
MR: I hope that everyone who came to our Beanies for Nathalia event was touched by the story of Nathalia, and how taking even an hour out of your day to help someone can bring a smile to their face.