Love Your Melon – An Interview with Jackie & Robbie Ellingson About Their Passion for Helping Pediatric Cancer Patients!
Today we are sharing an interview with Jackie and Robbie Ellingson, who most of you know as part of our amazing Fuel Dock team. What you may not know is that they are also key volunteers for Love Your Melon, a national group that raises money to fight pediatric cancer! LYM was founded at the University of St. Thomas, and still operates out of Minnesota!
Read on the learn more about their work and how you can be involved:
Q. Can you tell me a little about yourself? What is your background, what are you interested in or pursuing in school?
Robbie: Heading into senior year is a crazy thought!!! But I have loved every step of the way. I am a marketing major at UST, and have absolutely loved my classes! I am also a Spanish and Environmental Studies minor, so my classes are varied and keep me on my toes. This summer I was interning at a digital marketing agency in Minneapolis a few days a week, riding horses and spending as much time on the river as I could! I am still not exactly sure what I want to be doing in the future, whether it would be working with an environmental agency saving the rainforests (haha, somebody has to!) or in the field of ministry, or nonprofits.
Jackie: At St. Thomas, I am pursuing a Mathematics degree, and am thinking about going into teaching at some point! This summer when I am not at the marina, I am also a math tutor part time and have really fallen in love with working with the kids…and the math! Giving back to others and using my gifts and blessings is something that I love to do—so whether it is helping students with math, or being involved with Love Your Melon to help spread awareness and host “superhero adventures” for kids has been wonderful.
Q. How would you describe Love Your Melon’s work?
Jackie: Love Your Melon is an apparel brand dedicated to giving a hat to every child battling cancer in America as well as supporting nonprofit organizations who lead the fight against pediatric cancer. Love Your Melon has partnered with 736 college campuses around the U.S. to help reach more families and children, and this number is continuing to grow! Making personal connections and face-to-face hat deliveries in the hospitals and to households is something that LYM really focuses on.
Q. Why and when was LYM founded?
Robbie: Love your Melon started with two boys who had to create and market their own product in an entrepreneurship class in 2012 at the University of St. Thomas (learn more about the founders here!)… Little did they know that in a little over three years they would have more than 736 different schools around the nation helping them continue their mission of putting a hat on every child battling cancer in America.
Q. What attracted you to the cause?
Robbie: I was attracted to LYM because of the mission and drive that they had to truly bring a smile to the pediatric cancer patients. The LYM adventures, hats and volunteers brought such a light into the hospital room. The joy that LYM was able to instill in these children is why I wanted to join and help be a part of giving them a glimmer of fun when doctors and appointments cluttered their days. I am so glad that I became a part of this corporation, as it has brought hope, smiles and memories to others, changed their lives, and has also changed my life at the same time.
Also since LYM started at the University of St. Thomas where we attend, it was easy to get involved!!
Jackie: I also really wanted to get involved with the organization because I wanted to have a direct impact on the families, and the numerous events, helicopter rides, hospital visits, “superhero adventures” and many other things truly mean the world to the families.
Q. What is unusual or unique about LYM?
Jackie: Love Your Melon is now a for-profit company, where 50% of the proceeds from merchandise go to two companies who LYM has partnered with. One of them being Cure Search, which is a research organization, and the other one being the Pinky Swear Foundation. Pinky Swear works with families financially to provide support during chemo or while their child is in the hospital. This is what makes LYM so successful – because not only are they making quality products, but they are also continuing to give back to cancer research and have an impact on the families.
Q. How did you get started volunteering with LYM?
Robbie: We grew up in Stillwater, and have had numerous friends and friends’ family fight a battle with cancer, and knew we wanted to help. Zach Sobiech, who wrote the song “Clouds“, was in my and Jackie’s graduating class. So we heard of Love Your Melon right from the get go. And since we went to UST, where Love Your Melon started, we were eager to help out and volunteer. Becoming friends with the founders, and helping out whenever we could, got us connected and able to see the behind the scenes turn into great success over the last 4 years.
Q. What has impacted you the most while working with LYM?
Jackie: I have definitely been the most impacted by the families my crew has been able to meet and get to know over the past few years of being a crew. One event the St. Thomas LYM Crew organized was for an 8-year-old girl, Berkley. Berkley has been battling Stage 4 Neuroblastoma cancer.
So being able to have a special day planned out was very meaningful to Berkley and her parents. We were able to send her up in a helicopter and then have a superhero/princess themed pizza party afterward. Hearing from Berkley’s parents about the day-to-day tasks and what it is really like to go through a round of chemo with an 8 year old was devastating. Having the opportunity to get connected with Berkley’s family allowed our whole crew to truly see how cancer affects families first hand. However, even though Berkley had a chest tube, go in for bone scans, spent countless sleepless nights in the hospital, and had to have her levels checked multiple times a day, she still managed to run around with her sister, play hide and go seek, and be a smiley princess – now that is a superhero to me (: Being able to get plugged in to see how families have to change their way of life when they find out their child has cancer has been extremely impactful and LYM has inspired me to continue to fight against cancer.
Q. Do you have a newsletter or other way you keep in touch with people who are interested in this cause?
Jackie: Check out the main Love Your Melon website and Facebook account, but also stay updated with what Robbie and I are doing with our specific crew at St. Thomas! Our personal Facebook account is “University of St. Thomas Love Your Melon Campus Crew,” and our Instagram is “ust_loveyourmelon.” Give us a follow or like! 🙂
Q. If someone wanted to get involved with Love Your Melon – how would you recommend they do that?
Robbie: To become involved with LYM, I’d say that they best way to do so would be to purchase a hat or the new merchandise that is constantly changing on the
Love Your Melon website. This way your dollars are going to help fund cancer research and financial aid for the families impacted by cancer, and not to mention you will look stylish!! The LYM apparel truly gives back, so you can know you are making a difference through your purchases!
Join our story and the fight to end childhood cancer.
Princess Berkley at her superhero party!
We would like to thank Jackie and Robbie for taking time to share with us! If you would like to make a donation or purchase apparel that will help pediatric cancer patients – visit the Love Your Melon website!
Be sure to credit The University of St. Thomas when you make your purchase!!
Take a look at the Love Your Melon social media pages:
Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube
Below are more articles featuring Love Your Melon and the wonderful work they are doing for children with pediatric cancer!
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Q&A: Love Your Melon started as class project
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Love Your Melon: Hats and Hope
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Power Millennials: ‘Love Your Melon’ Helping Kids Fight Cancer
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Love Your Melon Unveils Partnership with Pinky Swear Foundation
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CureSearch Partners With Love Your Melon
All photos courtesy of their respective owners, Jackie and Robbie Ellingson, unless otherwise noted.
