I shaved my head for Love Your Melon
It all started with a blue bus
Love Your Melon, an apparel brand whose product sales fund superhero adventures for children battling cancer, cancer research and support for the families of children battling cancer, came to UVA on January 27, 2014 with the dream of putting a hat on every kid battling cancer in America.
I creepily follow Macklemore and his photographer on Instagram. The photographer, Paul Weaver, took pictures of an event Love Your Melon had held at a hospital in Minnesota. The pictures were so awe inspiring, and I did a little research and soon fell in love with the organization.
I kept tabs on their activity via social media, and then one day I saw in an email that Love Your Melon had contacted Alpha Phi Omega about sponsoring them to come on grounds.
It took a lot of planning to get the day ready – I even stayed up all night and made two hundred cookies in my little Lambeth oven.
Once the day came, I kept getting emotional seeing all the support from my fellow APO brothers, but also the UVA community as a whole.
The co-owners, Zach and Brian, were hoping to sell one hundred hats that day, and so I, very spur of the moment, vowed to shave my head if we reached that goal.
I have loved short hair ever since. We sold one hundred and forty hats that day, and the best part was the shock in my mom’s voice when she called telling me that a friend’s mom had told her what I had done, since it was plastered all over Facebook.
Two years later Love Your Melon is now present on five hundred different universities and partners with different organizations including CureSearch and Pinky Swear. UVA has its own “Love Your Melon Campus Crew” and at least once a semester a handful of students get to dress up as superheroes and go deliver Love Your Melon hats to the children at the hospital.
In interviews, when I am asked what is one of my proudest moments, I respond with this story, because it is the one day that I was overwhelmed with smiles and inspiration of my fellow students supporting a great cause.
Yes, I cried when they put the razor to my head, but I smiled a lot more. The most important thing I gained from losing over 11 inches of hair was the vitalness of being inspired by something greater than yourself.
If you want to learn more about Love Your Melon and their awesome hats check out loveyourmelon.com!