By Kathleen Mooney ’16
Staff writer
“Love Your Melon” was brought to Merrimack by Chris Hynes, a junior here at Merrimack College. It is an apparel brand run by college students across the country with a mission to “give a hat to every child battling cancer in America,” according to the group’s Web site.
It does this through a buy-one, give-one program, where an individual purchases a hat and one is donated to a child battling cancer. The hats are donated personally by Love Your Melon college ambassadors dressed as superheros.
Once 100 hats have been sold in connection to Merrimack, Love Your Melon will send the hats to Chris to deliver to a hospital personally.
These hats are available at www.loveyourmelon.com, and Merrimack customers should select “Merrimack College Campus Crew” on the left side of the checkout page.
A large group of Merrimack College students have already purchased hats and are excited about the prospect of helping children battling cancer.
“I think that it’s a really great company that is doing something amazing,” said student Dalton Lavoie. “They put smiles on the faces of children suffering from cancer and lets them know that they have more people cheering them on, to win their fight.
Lavoie said the hats are also “super warm and comfortable.” Student Dan Ulrich agreed.
“It’s a really high quality product that supports a great cause,” Ulrich said.
According to the Love Your Melon website, the group has “reserved more than 45,000 hats to donate to children battling cancer.” This is equivalent to the current number of children undergoing cancer treatment in America. It does not stop here however, “every year 150,000 children are given a new cancer diagnoses,” the Web site state.
After reaching this goal of 45,000 hats, Love Your Melon has teamed up with The Pinky Swear Foundation and CureSearch and 50% of net proceeds on every Love Your Melon product will be donated to the Pinky Swear Foundation and CureSearch.
Merrimack’s crew is led by Captain Chris Hynes, Vice-Captain Catherine Cohen, Public Relation Manager Thomas Drover, and Secretary Victoria Bethoney. If you are looking to get involved, e-mail Chris Hynes for weekly updates and attend the bi-monthly meetings.
Photo source: loveyourmelon.com
