November 29, 2012
MPA alumnus Zach Quinn (’11) and his classmate Brian Keller – both sophomores at the University of St. Thomas – recently launched “Love Your Melon,” a business with a vision to help children with cancer smile and give them hope for the future! For every “Love Your Melon” hat they sell, a child with cancer will receive a hat as well.
“Our inspiration came from a project in our Entrepreneurship 200 class at St. Thomas,” Zach said. “We were tasked with starting a business that included every component of a Lemonade Stand.”
From the start, Zach said, it was clear to him and his project partner, Brian Keller, that they wouldn’t be satisfied with anything small or temporary.
“We wanted to create something that we could be passionate about and continue past the class project,” he said.
“Given personal connections
with people diagnosed with cancer, we decided we wanted to do something to help in that field.”
Realizing the competition for donations they would face if they created a non-profit organization, Zach said they decided to go the route of creating a for-profit company that provided a great product and in turn had a donation portion. Love Your Melon, he explains, was born from their theory that a for-profit company can sustain a charitable goal better than a non-profit can in a lot of cases.
Zach’s experiences at MPA played an important role in this venture, he said. “Mounds Park Academy instilled in me the belief that one of my purposes on this planet is to do as much as I can to help make others lives better. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and with this company I finally found a way to combine those two great aspects of myself together.”
“Teachers like Maureen Conway, Barbara Bradley and Richard Meacock among many others, created stimulating educational experiences that taught me not only what is happening in the world but they taught me to think of why it is happening and what I can do to make it better,” Zach added.
“Love Your Melon” hats are made in the USA out of 100% cotton. Zach and Brian ordered 400 to begin with – 200 to sell and 200 to give away. After starting to sell them on Friday, they completely sold out over the weekend. Now they are working with local organizations like the Children’s Cancer Research Fund, the Minnesota Medical Foundation and the Amplatz Children’s Hospital to donate our hats this week.
“Love Your Melon” hats is currently putting in an order with their suppliers for more hats due to the great feedback they’ve gotten so far. Check out their Facebook page to stay updated, and look for some familiar MPA faces sporting colorful “Love Your Melon” hats!
