Go Pink: Local first responders use vehicles heighten breast cancer awareness
Paul Paterra/Observer-Reporter
Members of the fire and police departments of Cannonsburg and North Strabane, as well as the Washington County Sheriff’s Department with vehicles decked out in pink to heighten breast cancer awareness.
A Canonsburg Volunteer Fire Department vehicle pinks out.
Paul Paterra/Observer-Reporter
The Washington County Sheriff’s Department vehicle adorned in pink.
A North Strabane Township police vehicle adds a touch of pink to heighten breast cancer awareness.
All month, the first responders of Canonsburg and North Strabane have been seeing pink.
Police officers and firefighters in those communities as well as the Washington County Sheriff’s Department joined forces to promote breast cancer awareness. Each October, people around the world sport pink to raise awareness of and support people who are affected by breast cancer.
Last week, at North Strabane’s municipal building, a number of first responder vehicles were decked out in their best pink.
“We’ve chosen to move in a direction of bringing breast cancer awareness to the forefront,” explained Dave Rhome, Canonsburg assistant fire chief. “We care about those ladies that go through this nasty disease and the trauma to their bodies. We also can’t forget that males have issues in the same area. We’ve all come together to heighten the awareness in all of our communities.”
Other first responders in attendance said their departments are happy to be involved in the effort.
“We support breast cancer and all cancer awareness,” said Capt. Robert Vaughan of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department. “We’re going to have this (vehicle) wrapped all year for the observance and the display, so it keeps bringing awareness to the forefront.”
The cause means a lot to North Strabane Patrolman Ben Huminsky since his wife is a cancer survivor.
“I think it’s great that we get to do this,” he said. “It’s good to see that public safety puts that out there to send the message out to everybody. It goes unnoticed sometimes. It’s a nice reminder that people are fighting a pretty important battle out there.”
Rhome said this effort to heighten awareness is probably going to continue.
“It’s been talked about within our membership that we’re going to keep this going not only in October, but we’re going to look into November too,” Rhome said. “Hopefully, we can find a cure for this somewhere down the road.”