UND Love Your Melon crew displaying caps at the Ronald McDonald House in Fargo. Photo submitted.

Sometimes the biggest ideas are formed in a classroom.

In 2012, the Love Your Melon Foundation was founded at the University of St. Thomas by Zachary Quinn and Brian Keller. What began as a project for an entrepreneurship class has become an established 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a mission to put a hat on every child battling cancer.

In addition to the hats themselves, the organization provides therapeutic entertainment by donating the hats in person to pediatric hospitals and spending time with the children.

The Love Your Melon Foundation uses “campus crews” to spread the word of their cause through student ambassadors across the U.S.

Junior Emily Johannes started UND’s Love Your Melon crew in October of 2014. Having previously held the position of philanthropy chair in her sorority, Gamma Phi Beta, Johannes felt the need to continue giving back once she decided to step down.

After seeing her cousin develop leukemia and participate in the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Johannes was inspired to get involved with an organization that could make a difference in the lives of children battling illnesses.

Once she discovered Love Your Melon through social media, Johannes reached out to the founders of the organization and received an enthusiastic response. Quinn and Keller are actively involved in the nationwide campus crews, and Johannes is in frequent communication with them. The initial goal of one hundred hats sold to get the crew up and running was met quickly, and every 50 hats sold after that earns them more and more hats to donate.

The work of a Love Your Melon crew heavily involves spreading the word across campus, both through word of mouth and social media.

The UND crew currently runs Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts devoted to their cause. Johannes mentions that she sees Love Your Melon hats on campus every day, often by people she has never met, and notes that wearing the hats is one of the most effective ways to promote the organization.

A campus crew also is responsible for holding sales events and donation events.

On March 6, the UND crew held their first donation event at Ronald McDonald House in Fargo.

Ronald McDonald Houses are special places for families of sick children to stay at little or no cost while their child is hospitalized. They serve as a “home-away-from-home” for many families that need to travel to receive specialized medical care.

For this event, the crew donned homemade superhero outfits and brought 100 hats with them to donate.

The Love Your Melon Foundation provided Johannes with an allowance for costumes, but she felt it was a better idea to put those funds towards fabric and supplies for the kids to make their very own superhero capes.

“I didn’t think it was as important to dress up as it was to make it fun for (the kids),” Johannes said, adding that the smiles she sees are the best part of the experience.

“Giving back is rewarding. Seeing the outcome as more than how hard it is to put together the event; seeing how happy everyone is.”

The crew’s first donation event saw several families and their children, and a portion of the hats are being shared with a second Ronald McDonald House in Fargo.

Johannes and her crew spent the evening talking with the families and transforming the children into hat-wearing superheroes.

Johannes says the crew hopes to hold their first sales event within the next couple of weeks and will most likely be set up in the Memorial Union where they will have a selection of hats as well as other Love Your Melon gear for students to purchase and support the cause.

So far, the Love Your Melon crew at UND has 14 members and an extensive waiting list of students eager to get involved. The crew is currently in the process of becoming an official campus club.

The UND crew recently surpassed a goal of 300 hats sold, ranking them seventh in the nation in sales.

This number only continues to grow.

The Love Your Melon Foundation as a whole has worked together to give and sell more than 40,000 hats, with 110 campus crews across the U.S. spreading the word.

To make a contribution to the Love Your Melon Foundation, visit LoveYourMelon.com, and be sure to select “University of North Dakota Campus Crew” at checkout.

Serianna Henkel is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].