Love Your Melon: Putting a hat on every child battling cancer in America

College students Zachary Quinn and Brian Keller founded Love Your Melon in an entrepreneurship class. The company’s objective would aim to make a positive impact on children battling cancer through selling beanies and donating the revenue to non-profits. Although the business was projected to be unsuccessful, Quinn and Keller sold out their 200 hats in two days. The duo then made it their goal to donate 45,000 beanies to every child in America battling cancer, which they exceeded. From there, they aimed to donate $1,000,000 towards pediatric cancer research while also getting direct support to children and their families with pediatric cancer. They have now given over $2.5 million towards pediatric cancer funds and have donated over 90,000 beanies. The beanies on their site vary in color and style. They also have a range of accessories like headbands, jewelry, tote bags, and mugs, and some apparel such as tees, leggings, and zip-ups.

The concept to “put a hat on every child battling cancer in America” is simple, yet meaningful, attracting many people to Love Your Melon’s mission. To make the mission a reality, Quinn and Keller became knowledgeable of the challenges that children battling cancer face daily. Quinn said, “We picked pediatric cancer because we saw it as a large population of people who weren’t being supported by the structure of our society.”

Another major factor of the company is Campus Crews, college ambassadors who help plan, set-up, and run donation events. They currently have 12,000 college ambassadors on over 800 campuses. Quinn said, “This is a critical component of our company, it’s important to us that we are able to donate our beanies in-person.”

Love Your Melon’s great success is small compared to their future goals. They plan on expanding their company and product line in order to provide more funding to their non-profit partners, some of which are Make-A-Wish, St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital, and The Max Cure Foundation. In the next year, they aim to triple in revenue by joining ecommerce sales with a wholesale retail plan, big box retailers, and a corporate gifting and custom product program. By doing this, Love Your Melon will have a greater impact on their nonprofit partners, furthering their support in bettering the lives and finding a cure for children and their families who are dealing with pediatric caner.

If you’d like to get involved, you can purchase a beanie, among other products, at Love Your Melon.