Love Your Melon, the on-campus club that supports the organization by the same name, has been on the Oswego State campus for the past three or four years. Not a lot of students have heard about it because the club is not recognized by Student Association.

Love Your Melon, which originated at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, makes different clothing items, such as snow hats and shirts, and donates 50 percent of the proceeds to research for pediatric cancer.

With the lack of publicity, the club, referred to as the “crew,” has a mere 10 members, one of which is president and captain Bianca Digiacomo. There is a bit of confusion about the club, since there was an original Love Your Melon under SUNY Oswego as the school. However, Digiacomo said that when she started the club, she made it “Oswego,” and eventually, the two clubs merged.

Oswego State’s crew has not been recognized by SA because it has not started the process, SA Vice President Daisie Bancroft said. According to a guide located in The Point, there are eight steps to creating a new SA-recognized organization. Some steps include making a constitution, getting approval for the club idea and meeting with Student Affairs and Enrollment Management.

Digiacomo said the club has tried to get recognized before. Love Your Melon is not a foundation. It does not accept money for the apparel. Members can only promote the apparel and encourage people to buy it.

“I think [SA] thought that we were accepting money,” Digiacomo said.

There was also an attempt to get the club recognized this year by Digiacomo. She said that was a main goal after being named captain for the 2017-2018 academic year.

“I tried to meet with somebody [from SA],” Digiacomo said. “But, nobody ever showed up.”

This has been a struggle for campuses that have tried to start their own crew for Love Your Melon, Digiacomo said. Nationwide, the foundation will be changing to a nonprofit organization so that more campuses will allow the program to function under student governments.

According to the organization’s website, Love Your Melon has given over $4.5 million for research.

“Each crew kind of starts to spread the word about pediatric cancer [on their campus],” Digiacomo said.

The members of each crew do not actually make any of the apparel themselves, with the factory based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Instead, the crews promote the products and different sales through social media. Oswego State’s crew generally uses Twitter and Instagram.

With each sale and follower it has on social media, a crew can earn credits to redeem for different perks as a crew. Some of the things it can earn are beanies for the group, visiting the Ronald McDonald House and meeting some of the beneficiaries of the proceeds. Oswego State’s crew will be visiting a hospital at the end of April.

Digiacomo said the crew has around 245 credits and would like to host something similar to a blood drive, which costs 100 credits. She said that most of the rewards are unrealistic for their crew since members cannot promote under SA’s name.

“We need a space to rent. We can’t pay for that [out of pocket,]” Digiacomo said. “We’re trying to work with a sorority to get a table for that.”

Since Love Your Melon does not receive publicity from SA, it has partnered with Colleges Against Cancer before. All tabling events and posters had “Colleges Against Cancer partners with Love Your Melon,” Digiacomo said. Nesel also said that all of the costs are strictly out of pocket.

Digiacomo said she also recruited the public relations manager for Love Your Melon, Becky Nesel, during the previous spring semester. She has been a crucial part to the building of the club, Digiacomo said.

Nesel’s responsibilities as the public relations manager include promoting the club on social media and advertising for Love Your Melon in general. She originally joined the crew because she enjoyed the products the organization had and the ability to help fund childhood cancer research.

“I also just loved the possibilities of helping make a smaller club become bigger, even if I only made a small difference,” Nesel said. “No matter how small the gesture, I like knowing it can put a smile on someone’s face who is going through a very hard time.”

Digiacomo said she hopes to get the club recognized sooner rather than later, but Love Your Melon will not be able to be recognized until the 2018-2019 academic year since the process closed the Friday before spring break, according to the guideline.

“Once they start the SA recognition process they will be SA recognized,” Bancroft said.

Photo provided by Bianca Digiacomo