Gov. Dayton Declares Tuesday 'Love Your Melon Day'
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Gov. Mark Dayton has declared Tuesday to officially be "Love Your Melon Day."
The event is meant to honor thousands of local children battling cancer and their families that have been there to support them.
The day was co-founded by Brian Keller, a student at the University of St. Thomas who teamed up with his friend Zachary Quinn to create the charity.
"Love Your Melon was started in our entrepreneurship class at the University of St. Thomas," Keller and Quinn posted on the Love Your Melon website. "We started with 400 hats and in three days after selling 200, we were able to give away another 200 to children in the hospital. After seeing the impact that this simple act of giving had, we were motivated to continue this forward to help as many children as possible."
Keller told WCCO on Tuesday morning that the foundation has now sold more than 2,100 hats.
About $3,510 from just the "Zach hats" -- named after Zach Sobiech, the musician who wrote the hit song "Clouds" before dying of cancer -- was presented to Children's Cancer Research Fund Tuesday.
The song went viral hitting three million views by the time Sobiech died in May.
He was the first patient the non-profit helped.
Now he's being remembered as the nonprofit grows and celebrations continue at St. Thomas for Love Your Melon day.
