A national organization dedicated to giving a hat to every child with cancer in America now has a Ball State chapter, which is one of more than 225 campus groups in the nation.
Two college students founded Love Your Melon (LYM) in 2012. Student ambassadors visit hospitals dressed as superheroes to distribute hats to children with cancer.
People can also purchase hats off the website as a buy one, give one deal. When purchasing a hat, the buyer selects which school they want to sponsor the purchase at check out.
Rachel Pluckebaum, a junior public relations major and public relations manager for Ball State’s LYM chapter, first heard about the organization after seeing pictures of a Facebook friend from Purdue participating.
“It melted my heart, and at that moment I knew I wanted to join this organization as well and help the cause,” Pluckebaum said.
When she looked more into creating a chapter of LYM on campus, she realized there were already other Ball State students interested.
“I was really surprised because I emailed [LYM] pretty late at night and they responded back within an hour or so,” Pluckebaum said. “They also cc’ed other girls who had contacted LYM within the past year, and we started emailing back and forth and decided to meet up last week.”
The group now has 20 members, which is the limit for beginning groups. Potential members can be added to the waitlist.
The group is now focused on raising awareness of its mission on campus.
“With the help of other students who took initiative, we worked tirelessly together to get our campus crew started,” said Elizabeth Flynn, a junior child development major and president of the group. “These next few weeks, we plan on being all around campus spreading the word about our crew.”
One of the group's biggest goals is to get David Letterman to wear a hat while on his visit to Ball State Nov. 30. Each month, LYM headquarters gives its crews a challenge. This month, it is to get celebrities to take pictures in LYM hats.
“We as a crew are working really hard to get as many celebrities as possible to take pictures in the hats and tag Love Your Melon on social media,” Pluckebaum said. “It would be an honor to have David Letterman wear an LYM hat and take a picture in it, ... so hopefully we can make that happen. Fingers crossed.”
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