A typical night for Braden Kubish doesn’t involve superheroes, but thanks to College of DuPage’s Love Your Melon (LYM) campus crew, Kubish experienced a night he will never forget.

With a bright blue cape in hand with “Braden” in bold white letters, four COD students transformed into America’s favorite heroes. Wonder woman, Bat girl, Batman and Spiderman emerged to an ecstatic Kubish. The night was filled with games, laughter and endless smiles.

For Kubish and his family, these heroes meant more than one could imagine.

Seven year old Kubish has suffered from brain cancer resulting in the removal of two brain tumors and blindness in his left eye. Though different from others his age, his spirit is no different; if anything, it’s amplified. College of DuPage’s new Love Your Melon (LYM) crew, got to experience Braden’s spunk on a personal level.

LYM is an organization dedicated to helping the families and children affected by pediatric cancer by donations and initially had a“buy one, give one” motto. LYM sells shirts, baseball hats, mugs and more. They are most known for their beanies. If you purchase one, they give another to a child with cancer. Since the buy-one-get-one style proved effective, they moved on to giving 50 percent of proceeds to the Pinky Swear Foundation, which is focused on helping families through support, and 50 percent going to Cure Search to assist in finding the cure for pediatric cancer.

For LYM’s National Superhero Day, the DuPage crew surprised Kubish in his home with their own team of classic crime fighters.

“That [visit] was an incredible experience,” said Angela Toritto, campus crew captain. As Toritto recalled her experience with Kubish, her eyes lit up and smile grew from ear to ear. “He thought we were real superheroes, too, and that was the best part. We gave him a ton of stuff and a customized cape.”

“He was very energetic and loved the whole thing,” continued Toritto. “It was unlike any other experience you could do. Just seeing a kid like that. He was telling us how it’s hard for him to go up and down the stairs at school, and it makes him nauseous, and people would tell him, ‘hurry up’ and ‘move out of the way.’ After that, it made it more personal and made us realize, ‘wow’ and everything this kid is going through.”

“He’s the real superhero, and it’s why we are doing that for him,” said Toritto. “It just got really personal after. It’s another reason we are a part of it, to help out kids that are in that position, and make them feel better, and get them excited about little things like that.”

Toritto started the crew after hearing about friends at other colleges getting involved. Majoring in elementary education, helping children pulled Toritto in.

“Just being able to visit kids, and the fact that it’s about kids, that is the main target for me because elementary education,” said Toritto. “That’s the first thing that struck me; it’s for pediatric cancer. The beanies are adorable too. The hats they sell are so cute and so comfortable to wear!”

The household visit was just one of the things that LYM rewards campus crews with based off how well their sales are going. The crew was created only in February of this year and is at a 75 credit mark.

“LYM is run through college students throughout the country, so that’s how we got lucky enough to do that,” explained Toritto. “We found him through one of the girls in our group. It goes by a point system. Every hat we sell we get a credit. Every 50 credits we get something new. At 100 credits you get to do a house visit, but we’re only at 75, and we’re lucky enough to go visit him!”

The crew goes beyond just beanies. Visiting Kubish helped them realize what goes into truly loving your melon.

“In the beginning it was more about just selling hats, trying to get to each credit level, but now that we’ve actually experienced a household visit, I feel like it’s changed our perspective,” said Toritto. “We want to keep doing this. We want to keep going to houses and helping kids and things like that. Just visiting the kid was a crazy impact and a turning point.”

Merchandise can be purchased through loveyourmelon.com and to assist COD’s crew, select “College of DuPage” at checkout. To be a part of the crew, find them on ChapLife or facebook.com/lymcollegeofdupage.