New campus group focuses efforts on supporting child cancer patients
When junior Morgan Moe found out her mom was diagnosed with cancer last summer, her life changed. She was attending the University of Lincoln-Nebraska, but decided she needed to be closer to home in Sioux Falls to be with family.
After living in Sioux Falls and attending the University Center while her mom underwent treatment to successfully beat the disease, Moe felt she needed another change, which led to enrollment at the University of South Dakota. Still, she felt the need to do something big.
Now, Moe is the captain of USD’s Love Your Melon (LYM) crew, an organization that funds childhood cancer research initiatives, provides immediate support for children’s families and donates a hat to every child battling cancer in the U.S. The newly-formed campus group is now working to find its footing and gain support from USD students.
“A lot of people are touched by cancer in one way or another, so getting it on campus was what I wanted to do,” Moe said.
There are about 50 LYM campus crews around the country, Dominic Jankowsk, vice captain of USD’s LYM crew, said. He said one of his high school classmates received aid from LYM, which inspired him to help start the campaign at USD.
“South Dakota doesn’t really know about this and I wanted to help with the mission,” he said. “I was interested in starting it myself, I was like ‘Why isn’t this here?’”
When a person buys a LYM product — typically a hat, T-shirt or baseball cap — 25 percent of profits go to funding cancer cure research and 25 percent of profits go to Pinky Swear, an organization that helps pay cancer families’ bills, Moe said.
USD’s LYM Crew was only recently officially recognized as an “ambassador crew” by the national LYM organization in March. Moe said the group’s main focus right now is spreading their mission through social media.
“We’re coming close to the end (of the semester) now, so we can’t really do much now,” she said. “We’re following a bunch of people on Instagram and Twitter, and we’re inviting people to our Facebook page, hoping they’ll follow us back.”
So far, students have been receptive to the group’s cause, Jankowsk said. The national LYM organization limits crews to 20 members, and Jankowsk said USD’s LYM Crew is full and that there is a waiting list for other students to become crew members, should current crew members decide to step down.
“We’d love to have a lot of passionate people to help us out with this,” Jankowsk said.
Moe said an essential goal of each crew is to earn credits from the national LYM organization. Credits are awarded to individual crews when someone purchases a LYM product online and mentions which crew they are supporting. When a crew earns 100 credits, the national LYM organization rewards them with prizes.
“Our first event is a superhero party at the Sanford Children’s Hospital (in Sioux Falls),” Moe said. “We’ll be affecting each and every one that we do see.”
Sophomore Hayley Warren was one of the first people to get involved with the group when it began. She is partly in charge of the crew’s social media.
“This is more (a) more happy (cause), and it’s a different way of helping kids with cancer,” Warren said. “This is showing that we can help as college students.”
(Photo: Junior Morgan Moe is the captain of USD’s Love Your Melon Crew, an organization that funds childhood cancer research and provides aid to families battling the disease. Trent Opstedahl / The Volante)
