Firefighter calls on locals to wear pink. Tour aims to raise cancer awareness.
Glendale, Ariz., Firefighter Dave Graybill donned pink turnout gear and drove a pink fire truck across the country this past fall (2008) to rally support for women who have survived cancer and towards the much needed research that will continue to save lives. . Starting from the Glendale Arizona Fire Department in August, Graybill stopped in 32 cities to join with other firefighters, police officers and local officials to promote the cause. During Graybill's Pink Ribbon Tour he called for local officials to "Care Enough to Wear Pink" to show support for breast cancer survivors.
Q: How did you pull the project together?
A: I bought a big map of the U.S. and started putting dots where I wanted to drive a pink fire truck. I asked a company to build me a stainless steel statue of a pink ribbon, and they did. It took them seven months and about 500 hours after work and on weekends, and I pull that ribbon on a pink trailer. While that was being built, I was forming a non-profit group, and we created our own clothing line so we could generate funds, because I'm a fireman, and I don't have any money. The most wonderful thing that happened was, I'm in a Starbucks and meet a friend who introduces me to his wife, and I tell her what I'm going to do and why I'm doing it, and she gets out her checkbook and writes me a $13,500 check so I can buy a fire truck that I found on eBay from a firefighter in Jacksonville, Fla. A company wrapped it pink for free, and I'm driving it down the freeway, and some lady starts screaming at me, "Pull over, pull over." [She] was the first person to sign the truck.
Q: What's going to happen to the truck?
A: I'm going to pick up another truck, and I want to build a pink fire station. My goal is to get developers, architects and community leaders and people all over the country to build a shrine to our women, and every brick on the fire station will have the name of a woman who has gone through cancer. It will have a retail store, a restaurant and the pink fire trucks on display. Those pink trucks will go out in the community and help women with cancer.
Glendale, Ariz., Firefighter Dave Graybill donned pink turnout gear and drove a pink fire truck across the country this past fall (2008) to rally support for women who have survived cancer and towards the much needed research that will continue to save lives. . Starting from the Glendale Arizona Fire Department in August, Graybill stopped in 32 cities to join with other firefighters, police officers and local officials to promote the cause. During Graybill's Pink Ribbon Tour he called for local officials to "Care Enough to Wear Pink" to show support for breast cancer survivors.
Q: How did you pull the project together?
A: I bought a big map of the U.S. and started putting dots where I wanted to drive a pink fire truck. I asked a company to build me a stainless steel statue of a pink ribbon, and they did. It took them seven months and about 500 hours after work and on weekends, and I pull that ribbon on a pink trailer. While that was being built, I was forming a non-profit group, and we created our own clothing line so we could generate funds, because I'm a fireman, and I don't have any money. The most wonderful thing that happened was, I'm in a Starbucks and meet a friend who introduces me to his wife, and I tell her what I'm going to do and why I'm doing it, and she gets out her checkbook and writes me a $13,500 check so I can buy a fire truck that I found on eBay from a firefighter in Jacksonville, Fla. A company wrapped it pink for free, and I'm driving it down the freeway, and some lady starts screaming at me, "Pull over, pull over." [She] was the first person to sign the truck.
Q: What's going to happen to the truck?
A: I'm going to pick up another truck, and I want to build a pink fire station. My goal is to get developers, architects and community leaders and people all over the country to build a shrine to our women, and every brick on the fire station will have the name of a woman who has gone through cancer. It will have a retail store, a restaurant and the pink fire trucks on display. Those pink trucks will go out in the community and help women with cancer.
