With Winter in full swing, I've noticed a lot of people around campus adding stylish beanies of all colors to their daily looks. However, these beanies aren't just any winter accessory. Everywhere you look around URI, you see hats with the Love Your Melon logo on it. Being as curious as I am, I had always wondered what the hype with this brand is and why everyone I knew seemed to own one of these hats. After talking to Abby Mastrone, a founding member of URI's 'LYM' team, these beanies are more than I could have ever imagined.
Every year around 13,500 children are diagnosed with cancer in the US. With cancer researchers, doctors, and fundraisers doing all they can to heal these children, sometimes cancers takes too much of an emotional toll on patients for anything to ever make the process of going through treatments any easier. That is where the Love Your Melon' campaign comes in.
As many people know, chemotherapy treatment, the most common form of treatment, causes hair loss for patients. This can be a very detrimental step for most patients, especially among teenagers and younger children. Love Your Melon was founded originally in an entrepreneurship class at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota by two friends, Zach and Brian. This movement of bringing LYM to different campuses across America has been in action since October of 2012. With the ultimate goal of putting a hat on the head of every single child battling cancer in America, these boys created something bigger than they could've ever imagined.
Essentially, you purchase one of their hats at a campus promotional event or online on their website and you then give a hat to a child who is battling cancer. The Crew members at your school then will deliver a hat on your behalf to give to a child on one of their visits. Not only are people on campus looking extremely stylish, but they are also passing along an opportunity for pediatric cancer patients to feel confident and have a reason to smile again.
Abby Mastrone, a student at the University of Rhode Island who has the hopes of eventually becoming a Child Life Specialist and work alongside families and children who battle disease such as cancer, had heard about the brand and took the opportunity to work with the now "Crew Captain", Lizzie Plotkin, and start a chapter of their own. With the goal of aiding local families and their children who are battling cancer, this team of 20 members has changed the lives of local Rhode Island children by making house visits, hospital visits, and even visiting the local Ronald McDonald House.
Abby says, that to her and the rest of the team, the kids they are giving the hats to on their visits are their superheroes. I am very proud to have such dedicated and selfless students as my fellow Rhody Rams (and sorority sisters) and I look forward to purchasing my own beanie to help a superhero of my own.
