Philadelphia – Erin McComb’s best friend has been battling cancer for two years. Like any good friend would, Erin has fought right alongside her and has looked for new ways to help the fight. A few months ago, she saw some girls from her high school post a picture wearing “Love Your Melon” hats with a child with cancer.
“I did research and I was like we need that, right now” said McComb. She got in touch with her sorority and started a branch here at Temple.The goal of Love Your Melon is to provide a hat to every kid with cancer in America. 
The way it works, according to Amanda Nowell, a member of the club, is “buy one give one.” Once you buy a hat, then a child with cancer gets a hat for free.
Temple’s branch has been extremely successful. In fact, they ranked second in the nation for sales this past semester in the celebrity challenge. The way the promotion worked is celebrities with a significant social media follower base could post a picture wearing the hat. Temple’s branch got in contact with celebrities ranging from the Philadelphia Eagles to reality television stars with millions of followers on Twitter.
“One of the teen moms we got had 2.2 million followers,” said Kayla Bet, “all that counted towards our total points.” The club has now accumulated enough points to treat a kid to a special event, which they will decide in the coming weeks.
They plan on participating in more events and challenges set by the national branch of Love Your Melon, which was originally founded by two students in an entrepreneurship class at an university in Minnesota. The mission is simple – to improve the lives of children with cancer, a goal that can resonated with Nowell.
“I just lost somebody with cancer – a child with cancer – two months ago. It kind of hit home for me so I figured this could be my chance to give back” she said.
Now, they’re reaching out to the Temple community to get involved in the fight as well. If you’d like to purchase a hat, you can log on to loveyourmelon.com, and then click on Temple University in checkout.
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