Minnesota-based Love Your Melon marks 10 years, 235,000 hats donated nationwide
Oct 18, 2022 10:03AM ● By Content Editor
By Derek James - CBS Minnesota News - October 17, 2022
Minnesota-born Love Your Melon has been on a mission from its infancy to help children with pediatric cancer. A small donation of beanies to kids in treatment at Masonic Children's Hospital a decade ago led to a movement.
Since, Love Your Melon has gone from a small company with a big impact to a big company with a lasting legacy that continues to grow.
WCCO's Derek James went to Masonic Children's to learn about how the company continues to give back to its roots as it reaches its 10 year anniversary.
When Love Your Melon's Zach Quinn and Brian Keller got a meeting with M Health's Nick Engbloom in 2012, they had a small goal.
"All we want to do is raise a few thousand dollars that will allow us to buy more hats to give to kids," he said. "We said let's try this and see what happens, and it was fantastic."
Love your Melon sold out of hats almost instantly and the first donations were made at Masonic Children's.
"I'll never forget the first hat drop that we did going bedside and knocking on kids doors saying, 'Would you like a hat?' And it was wintertime. The smiles and the eyes lit up," Engbloom said.
"It's a really neat opportunity for them to have a sense of comfort but also way to express themselves. I mean that's are different colors, different styles," Masonic Children's child life supervisor Shannon Houkom said.
As Love Your Melon's hat business exploded over the last 10 years, Masonic got more hat drops and financial support totaling over $1 million. Their latest donation involves improving the Family Resource Center, a space Engbloom calls the "heart and soul" of the children's hospital.
"It's a space where you can check out books and you can come together as parents and connect," he said.
The refresh is meant to improve the experience for the kids and families in the hospital.
To date, Love Your Melon has donated over 235,000 hats across the country. On Wednesday, M Health Fairview will announce the company's new total giving numbers and that the refreshed family resource center will have the Love Your Melon name on it.
