April 18, 2016
Hannah Harvey
[email protected]
Winter may be over, but it’s never untimely to keep your head warm to support an important cause.
The Love Your Melon Crew at UCCS wants to bring awareness to Love Your Melon, an apparel brand company started in 2012 by two college students that gives hats to children battling cancer in the U.S.
The UCCS group came together in January and hopes to become a registered club in the fall semester.
Love Your Melon also sells hats, T-shirts and sweatshirts to fund pediatric cancer research.
The brand donates 25 percent of all proceeds to CureSearch for Children’s Cancer Research, a board of pediatric oncologists researching to find a cure for cancer, and 25 percent to the Pinky Swear Foundation, an organization that hopes to provide financial and emotional support to cancer patients and families, according to vice-captain Becca Kerber.
“In the past four months of working with Love Your Melon I have never seen so much kindness, passion and positivity in my life. In the case of Love Your Melon, the worst has brought out the best,” said Kerber.
According to Kerber, UCCS was the only university in Colorado that did not have a Love Your Melon crew. The group has 20 members and a wait list of volunteers.
Members are reaching out to local children battling cancer, according to crew captain Adelia Stranko, who said the crew started at UCCS due to its diverse students.
“That kind of community only drives our passion to make an impact right here in Colorado Springs,” said Stranko.
Love Your Melon crews across the country participate in an event called Super Hero Day, when a crew takes a child battling cancer or in remission to a day of activities.
In 2015, Love Your Melon hosted 705 events and donated 51,264 hats to kids with cancer.
The UCCS crew will visit a seven-year-old boy later this month.
He had a brain tumor removed two years ago and has had cancer-related complications since, according to Kerber.
“He had Moyamoya, a condition that causes frequent strokes because of the location that his tumor was in,” said Kerber.
The boy has had surgery and is now in remission.
The crew will donate a Super Hero Day beanie to each member of the boy’s family, dress up as superheroes
and take the family to iT’Z Family, Food, & Fun, according to Kerber.
Students can sign up to volunteer and buy a beanie, cap or T-shirt on Love Your Melon’s website. Every time the UCCS crew is credited at checkout, the crew receives points.
“The more points we get, the more donation events we get to do, the more families in the community we get to impact,” said Kerber.
Students should get involved to make an impact on the community, according to Stranko.
“We all have the opportunity to make that positive impact in a child’s life.”
Students can follow the UCCS Love Your Melon Campus Crew on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.