<p style=” margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;”> <a href=”https://www.instagram.com/p/BB_KOJhvMPp/” style=” color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;” target=”_blank”>Meet a few of your Fitchburg State Campus Crew members! Help us win this weeks challenge by liking this photo and you'll be entered to win a FREE beanie! Want to DOUBLE your chances?! Tag a friend below! #kidsgetcancertoo #cancersucks #NortheastLYM #LoveYourMelon @loveyourmelon Giveaway ends 02/28 at midnight!</a></p> <p style=” color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;”>A photo posted by Fitchburg State LYM Crew (@fitchburgstatelymcrew) on <time style=” font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;” datetime=”2016-02-19T23:49:06+00:00″>Feb 19, 2016 at 3:49pm PST</time></p></div></blockquote> //platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js
By: Brian Lombardi
As winter half-heartedly trudges on, you may notice a new and particular brand within your sights around the Fitchburg State campus. Love Your Melon (LYM) beanies have been on the rise in your classes and on your Instagram feeds. Each time a Love Your Melon product is purchased, one of their hats is donated to a child with cancer. It’s a generous business that has been gaining a lot of popularity as of late.
The message LYM is conveying is relatively simple; it’s more than just a hat. LYM’s mission with the buy one, give one campaign is to ensure that every child battling cancer in America gets a hat. According to Curesearch.org, 43 children are diagnosed with cancer each day—a disturbing figure that LYM wants to combat.
LYM is a relatively new company, established in 2012, and has gained extraordinary traction throughout the country by utilizing college campuses. LYM operates by counting on students eager to help and having them form campus crews. These crews meetup to discuss their area sales, and organize volunteers to visit hospitals on behalf of LYM.
The Fitchburg State campus crew first started in early December, and the crew is currently in the process of being officiated as a club. The popularity of this movement can be mostly attributed to Grace Morrissey, a Fitchburg State student, who is spearheading the campus crew and recruiting anyone expressing interest.
“Cancer sucks and everybody knows that,” Morrissey said on Tuesday. “LYM has created an awesome program that lets college students create amazing memorable experiences for the kids, and allows them to take their minds out of their treatment.”
After first wearing her beanie, she spent the day fielding compliments and answering questions about where it came from. Upon hearing what the company was about, a number of students looked into it quite enthusiastically. Morrissey and the others in her crew see this as a great way to learn leadership skills and have the chance to engage with various people they otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to.
Is this a clever strategy to use a brand ambassador system as free advertising? Morrissey doesn’t think so.
“LYM isn’t your typical ambassador program. The reason I love the Love Your Melon ambassador program is because we get to have an actual immediate impact.” The campus crewmembers are able to visit hospitals dressed as superheroes, and personally deliver the gifts. The crewmembers aren’t urging others to sell to their personal networks, but rather spreading a meaningful message and taking pleasure in selfless giving.
“We’re affiliated with the brand and we get to participate in different things based on the number of hats we sell, and with every product sold, half of the proceeds are donated to two equally wonderful charities… it’s a pretty amazing feeling.”
Approximately 9,000 college students in the country are participating in the LYM program, stretching across 575 different schools. In 2015 LYM donated $1,000,000 to the aforementioned charities, the Pinky Swear Foundation and CureSearch. If you know of a child who has not been sought out, you can request a hat for delivery to a particular child that has not received one.