Love Your Melon was founded in October 2012 by Zachary Quinn and Brian Keller, two entrepreneurship students from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul Minnesota.

It is an apparel brand dedicated to giving a hat to every child battling cancer in America. Love Your Melon also supports nonprofit organizations who lead the fight against pediatric cancer.

ccording to Brianna Cearbaugh, the Huntington University Love Your Melon Crew Captain.

As the company grew, Quinn and Keller created an “ambassador program,” allowing college  students to start their own branches of Love Your Melon all over the U.S. Their goal for this program was to create a platform to spread awareness of pediatric cancer and promote their brand.

Last August, Brianna Cearbaugh saw an add on Facebook for this “ambassador program” and decided to apply.

“I had to find at least ten people to join the group in two weeks,” Cearbaugh said, “and from there, we’ve grown to where we are today, [which is] about twenty members.”

HU’s Love Your Melon Crew meets every other week to discuss what’s going on with LYM and what their plans are for spreading awareness about upcoming events on campus.

The LYM crews are clubs that get to do fun things to support a cause, such as hanging out with children in the community and going to professional sporting events at a discounted price.

Cearbaugh said that from every purchase, 50 percent of the profit is donated towards research, and every time a hat is purchased, a hat is also given to a child in a hospital battling cancer.

So far, Love Your Melon has donated $2,678,259 to pediatric cancer research and 110,380 hats to pediatric cancer patients.

This year, the LYM HU crew’s goal is to educate everyone on campus about Love Your Melon.

“We need more members and new follows on social media sites,” Cearbaugh said. “Overall, we just want to make an ever bigger difference than last year.”