Love Your Melon is a for-profit organization originally based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that designs hats and boosts up pediatric cancer. Every year, the Love Your Melon organization sends out a binder of tasks for UW-Stout to accomplish.

Ashly Twisk, who’s currently a senior studying in psychology at UW-Stout, and 2020’s captain of Love Your Melon on campus, said, “The binder this year has 4 sections and subsections of what should be completed. It’s kind of like getting into the community and doing whatever we can to give back through volunteering, Relay For Life, bonding, and stuff like that.”

Love Your Melon has been present, but unrecognized on campus since 2015. They spread the word about the organization in 2018 when Ashly Twisk assumed presidency and the Stout Student Association approved the organization.

According to Twisk, during the beginning of Love Your Melon’s approval on campus, they experienced difficulties with the structure of the organization. Things were more focused on the brand rather than the fundraising and promoting pediatric cancer fundraising. Stout wanted more than just the organization being run by business, Twisk said.

So, as a solution, Twisk began spreading Love Your Melon’s word at other universities in Wisconsin. Shortly, Love Your Melon received support from UW-River Falls, UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse and some universities in Minnesota. Love Your Melon has participated in missions over the years like Relay For Life by collaborating with colleges against cancer and by hosting promotions in the MSC (Memorial Student Center) on  campus.

Further discussing Love Your Melon’s missions, Twisk said, “One of the many things we do is complete the goals Love Your Melon wants us to do. One we did recently was the photoshoot with the crew, wearing Love Your Melon hats and posting it on Facebook. We also do team bonding, cheek swabbing drives to see if you’re matched to a bone marrow, transfusion, and overall just finding ways we can help.”

Love Your Melon is a sustainable organization that likes to re-use any resources in hat-making productions. Stout cannot sell or distribute the hats on campus and doesn’t receive any hats until they’ve fulfilled all their tasks, but Stout’s Love Your Melon offers giveaways on their Facebook page.

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