Both the Minneapolis and St. Paul mayors proclaimed Oct. 22 as Love Your Melon Day in the Twin Cities, an opportunity for co-founders juniors Zach Quinn and Brian Keller to celebrate a year of their non-profit.
To date, The Love Your Melon team has distributed 2,100 hats to children battling cancer, and Quinn and Kelleralso hope Governor Mark Dayton will recognize Love Your Melon Day statewide.
Keller said a goal for the day will be to bring even more awareness to children’s cancer. The LYM team has an event planned on the J.P. Monahan Plaza for Oct. 22 and hope to see students sporting their Love Your Melon gear. They also plan to sell some of their merchandise.
“We really wanted to do something because it was the one year (anniversary) that we’ve been doing Love Your Melon, like a one-day blowout blitz for children battling cancer,” Keller said. “So I had the idea of getting businesses involved on that day and trying to raise as much money as possible for different therapeutic cancer treatments.”
Each local business invited to participate will give a percentage of its daily revenue to the company to raise money for therapeutic treatments and fun events for the children.
Management professor Tim Murray said getting political figures involved was a smart move for the students as they can help spread a message faster.
“The Love Your Melon mission is something most politicians would embrace. I thought given the limited amount of time they have to publicize and to make the greatest impact, they should contact politicians who would embrace the mission and support it in ways that could gain some notoriety and credibility,” Murray said. “If your goal is to raise money, you’re going to get more donors that way.”
Quinn agreed and noted that a good chunk of campus already has Love Your Melon hats.
“We know between 100 and 200 kids on campus have our hats. We want as many people as possible to be wearing them on that day and really sharing it and sharing the cause with everybody,” Quinn said.
Junior Amanda Branch said she thinks the group’s success is admirable and hopes she can attend.
“It’s great that they have been able to spread such awareness and market themselves so well,” Branch said. “I would attend the event if it worked with my schedule. I am up for anything I can do to support them.”
Senior Abigail Rohlfing said she would shop at businesses sponsoring the Love Your Melon Day.
“It is so great what Zach and Brian are doing to raise awareness for individuals with cancer,” Rohlfing said. “If local businesses are supporting Love Your Melon, why wouldn’t I support them?”
Keller said the most rewarding part about co-founding Love Your Melon is seeing the joy it brings to kids during such a tough time.
“The amount of energy we get from what we’re doing and the amount of fulfillment that it creates for us is just absolutely amazing,” Keller said. “It keeps inspiring us to just keep trying to put as many smiles as we can on as many faces.”
Alison Bengtson can be reached at beng4632@stthomas.edu.