skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Day two of David Pecker testimony wraps in NY Trump trial; Supreme Court hears arguments on Idaho's near-total abortion ban; ND sees a flurry of campaigning among Native candidates; and NH lags behind other states in restricting firearms at polling sites.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The Senate moves forward with a foreign aid package. A North Carolina judge overturns an aged law penalizing released felons. And child protection groups call a Texas immigration policy traumatic for kids.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

Millennials Bring Joy to Sick Children

play audio
Play

Wednesday, December 21, 2016   

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A company that started as a class project for two college students has expanded into a community service effort for more than 12,000 students at nearly 800 college campuses across the country. Zachary Quinn and Brian Keller were students at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, when they launched "Love Your Melon." The idea was to provide beanies and baseball caps for local children with cancer, but it was so successful they started a company, with half of the profits going to pediatric cancer research.

National events director Alex Meysman, said college students go to hospitals dressed up in Superhero costumes to deliver the caps to the kids.

"And then they get to bring them in and go room to room and do arts and crafts, with the kids, I mean, this can go from having a little music show or some kind of play, all the way up to having a celebrity come in and perform for these kids," he explained.

In the last four years, Love Your Melon has provided more than 86,000 hats to children with cancer and raised more than $1.5 million for cancer research. The beanies are made by Minnesota Knitting Mills, and the baseball caps are made in Denver.

Love Your Melon campus chapters are in Maryland including at Loyola, St. Mary's and the University of Maryland.

Meysman said college students have embraced the idea of helping the children.

"It's these college students that we don't recruit, they come to us and say, 'Hey, I'd like to start a college campus crew, and I want to personally get my friends involved so that we can promote your message and then personally help the children that are in our community that are battling cancer and their family,'" he said.

Meysman also said that it's mostly about the kids, but it's also teaching the millennials who volunteer their time something very valuable.

"We're taking these college students and developing them as leaders of tomorrow and showing them that anything is possible, especially when you're trying to do something for somebody else, being selfless," he added.

Meysman said Love Your Melon has been so successful that most of their products online have sold out since Cyber Monday.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Creedon Newell practices teaching construction skills in Wyoming's new career and technical educator bridge course, designed to encourage trades students and professionals to pursue a career in CTE teaching. (Photo by Rob Hill)

Social Issues

play sound

By Lane Wendell Fischer for the Shasta Scout via The Daily Yonder.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service for the Public News …


Environment

play sound

By Naoki Nitta for Civil Eats.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public Ne…

Social Issues

play sound

Concerns about potential voter intimidation have spurred several states to consider banning firearms at polling sites but so far, New Hampshire is …


Though Connecticut's benefits cliff persists, there are other programs helping people maintain benefits of some kind when their income pushes them over the limit. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Today, groups working with lower-income families in Connecticut are raising awareness about the state's "benefits cliff" with a day of action…

Social Issues

play sound

Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick has released 57 "interim charges," the topics he wants Senate committees to study in preparation for the 89th …

It is estimated the Wild Springs Solar Project in New Underwood, South Dakota, will offset 190,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

The construction of more solar farms in the U.S. has been contentious but a new survey shows their size makes a difference in whether solar projects …

Social Issues

play sound

Minnesota's largest school district is at the center of a budget controversy tied to the recent wave of school board candidates fighting diversity pro…

play sound

Minnesota lawmakers are considering a measure which would force employers to properly classify certain trade union workers and others as employees rat…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021