Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/662005
t m c » p u l s e | a p r i l 2 0 1 6 6 night, I submitted the application. By 10:30 p.m., I got a response that essen- tially said, 'Yes, go ahead! If you can find 10 people, you can create a crew.'" After amassing an army of friends and supporters, Russell and her classmates officially launched the UH Campus Crew in August 2015. In the months that followed, they have visited Ronald McDonald House (RMH) Houston—dressed as superheroes, of course—to hand out hats, take photos and create crafts with the children staying there; traveled to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center on multiple occasions to donate beanies and engage with patients; and participated in a continu- ous stream of weekly online challenges to earn prizes like Jacob's superhero adventure helicopter ride. "That's what we're trying to show," Meysman said. "We'll still provide the hats themselves, and if you want to provide them for apparel reasons, that's great. But the other side of that hat is if you see someone wearing one, you're going to think about all of the other things that Love Your Melon is doing. Maybe it was donated to the person that you're seeing; maybe it was distributed as part of a superhero adventure. That's the story that each hat will tell, and it's a narrative that people are slowly picking up on and starting to understand." More than 40,000 children undergo treatment for cancer each year. According to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, therapeutic forms of treatment such as the ones Love Your Melon are working to create may have numerous health benefits for patients, ranging from pain relief to strengthen- ing the immune system. "Any time we have a group like Love Your Melon come in, it's an opportunity for patients to have their minds taken off the hospital environment," said "It's very easy for someone to send out hats to hospitals without having that personalized touch," said Alex Meysman, event director for Love Your Melon. "We focus on personally donating those hats to children—all while having our ambassadors dressed up in superhero costumes. We'll send hats to our ambassadors who will bring them to hospitals, but we'll also set up household visits if the child is feeling well enough to leave, and even throw them a party. "It's all about spending time with them and getting to know who these children—these 'real superheroes,' as our ambassadors call them—are," he added. "They get to learn so much, and the overarching mission and purpose of Love Your Melon is really to enable these students to engage with their communities." Right before the start of the 2015 academic year, Russell found herself doing what any college student might at 8:30 at night—scrolling through Facebook. A small ad featuring a logo for Love Your Melon immediately caught her eye. "At first, I thought, 'What does that even mean?'" said Russell. "I thought it was going to be about breast cancer awareness—like, 'love your melons'— but it wasn't. I went to the web site and thought, 'Wow, this is incredible!' I read everything on there, and that same