Eight thousand miles and dozens of Cities and we still have lots of work to do!

As we make our way through Florida, I realize how much work we still need to do to get our voice heard. People still are taking our logo and attaching it to specific causes (Ribbons) and not the women of their communities. We have become a brand, with this brand we represent our women, our communities and most importantly LOVE! They are suppose to use this brand, fund raise and then share the money with local organizations that help our women battling cancer and other issues. If we wear her color not because she's sick but because she represents love, selflessness, family, home, then Pink will Really Heal!
There is a reason we refer to our Country (United States) as SHE or HER, these two small words remind us that we need to protect and fight for our freedom it comes from our Love for our Country! The same goes for the women in our lives and around the World. Our brand is about people and it's not attached to a specific cause, if we rally around this brand and it's given for free, it will become the World's most powerful movement. know one can side step this calling to action because it's not in service to ourselves based on a personal struggle, with a specific disease. It is just doing what we where put here to do and that is put her first, stand together and take care of our families and communities.

I do have to admit that being called Guardians of the Ribbon can be a little confusing but in the beginning we wanted to protect all awareness ribbons and yes we do drive pink fire trucks. Komen has done a wonderful job in the area of research and marketing the pink ribbon to support breast cancer. We are just a little more profound in our approach and bring all people to take action in the fight for our women, families and communities. If our communities rally together for each other and not large organizations, then they control their destiny, large organizations will have to build infastructure close to these communities and thus create jobs, money raised stays home and then we can get CARE immediately! Pink Heals!

Learning to pace myself as we travel across the Country!

     One Month into this years tour and the emotional toll is quite exhausting, I battle trying to get the message out to all the media and leaders in the community, while trying to balance meeting so many people out there battling cancer. We are so much more than just an awareness campaign and our program is what the Country needs in a time where we have a hard time trusting our Leaders locally and nationally as well. I feel the pain in communities that have tried to work hard and around them their leaders have sold their labor of love.
     You would think that all fundraising done in our local communities, Counties and States would make it a requirement that we keep all the money locally, but very few States require that the money stays in their own State. Millions of dollars could be saved to generate jobs, save jobs and even provide immediate care for their own people, if we just kept the money generated by our labor of love.
     We have asked for nothing and give everything away because love has always been free, if we are in service to others it's never about the money. I love what it means to be an American, I love what it means to be in service to others based on true volunteerism, this is what has made America what it is.
Pink Heals! 

Becoming International sets the bar real high!

Now that we have visited our chapter in Quebec, we can officially say that we've become an International organization. We have firefighters in Iraq wearing our shirts and hopefully we will get some fire trucks painted pink and moving throughout the highways of Germany, Australia and the Philippines. These are the Countries that have showed interest in our program.
What Cities and departments across the Country still need to realize is that we are creating a movement with our program. We are branding this movement with our tour every year by building trust and spreading the same message over and over again. Putting our women first, not because she is sick but because she should be first. Men who are men realize this, leaders who truly have God given leadership abilities realize this. So that is why you see so many of our pink fire trucks with our symbol and our mission statement being driven throughout the Country. If you see a pink fire truck on the road and they don't look just like our National tour trucks, they aren't a part of our program.

Nothing like a platform to explain our movement!

We had a great stop in Hardin County thanks to Chief Steve New. He and his staff and firefighters along with the citizens of his community really put on a first class event. Now I know why in the old days Presidents went to small town USA to campaign, they truly know what community is all about and they still have that sense of serving others based on Love!
I have to say the parade and the placement of "Our Ribbon of Hope" statue was perfect. It was right in front of the American Flag, with a stage just in front of that. It really brought out a lot of emotion  for me and I really got the message out about our program.

We are going to create the Worlds largest brand to give away for free to help communities raise money, save jobs and even create jobs. What if the number one brand in the World was a symbol of love based on what our women mean to us and it was given to each and every community so they in turn could create funds to help people pay their unforeseen costs due to cancer. If we are willing to drive thousands of miles around the country imprinting this brand for free and we are willing to give it to you so you can use this brand to raise money and help your own people, it becomes perfect! This is the next evolution in fundraising, this is a program that all our Politicians can wrap their arms around and limits their ability to turn the other cheek. It brings them back to the front lines and lets them stand right with us as we celebrate our own people. What if we create an immediate care program in each community based on fundraising year round by our people in each community. You cannot tell me it won't work, I was told fireman wearing t-shirts wouldn't work and now we have forty pink fire trucks in three different countries and thousands of fire departments wearing our symbol all around the Globe. We will be the largest fire department in the World in the next five years and it will be all based on love and what our women mean to us! Pink Heals!

Making up stops as we go!

    I'm sitting in a Hampton Inn just outside Nashville in a town called Mt. Juliet. We have just eaten at a retired firefighters house in a Del Webb development whose wife is currently battling breast cancer. We met Mike and Jeanne George at our last event at a YMCA on the far West side of Nashville and they invited us over for some home cooked food. It is amazing when you travel the Country doing what we're doing, you get to meet great people and the stories you hear are amazing.
    It's amazing how many drivers, firefighters, real men and women that want to help us get across the Country spreading our program to so many afflicted with cancer and to so many Cities that need to establish new programs for their people.
When we pick Cities to visit we make contact with their local Fire Chief, Police Chief, Union Presidents, Mayor and if we have the time some of the Cancer organizations in each community. Very few tell us their not interested, very few of them once they see our press release and the videos of all the places that we've visited decline to celebrate the women, men and children that have taken the time to sign the trucks. Nashville's Fire Chief and it's City officials told us they where not interested, so that is how we ended up at the YMCA in Brentwood where we met a wonderful lady by the name of Nancy Brown. Nancy a survivor runs a non-profit program called ABC. They give survivors a free 16 week membership to the "Y", a trainer and offer all kinds of support information to help in recovery. Everything stays local and I think this is one of the many organizations we need to support as we inspire tax based organizations to raise money through our efforts. You can email Nancy at nbrown@ymcamidtn.org to get more information.  Pink Heals!

Picking up steam as we spread our message!

Gardendale AL was a great stop thanks to Rick Smith and Jennifer from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama. We had our best interview from Jeh Jeh on Fox 7 in Birmingham, who allowed us to really tell our story. This part of the Country we are making up a few stops as we go thanks to some help from friends on facebook.
James Wessell and gang from Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus really took care of us when we stopped by to say hello. They are located just off highway 231 in Union Grove AL and they are the best and most honest used fire truck dealer in the Country. We have been driving around without air conditioning in Tonya for two years, thinking that we needed a new A/C unit. James and crew got to work and all it needed was to be charged and to have belts put on the Compressor. But all aside from getting a little help, what I look forward to is all the love and support they give you by just spending time with them. I hope our friendship with them will last a lifetime and I recommend that you go by and say hello and get to know these great people if your ever in the area.

New Challenges as we grow in support!

     I was needing a little inspiration to get me fired up for this years tour and had know idea it would come all the way from Washington DC. Since I had recently retired from the fire department in Glendale AZ, I had all the time in the World to go out on tour.
    You would probably think that was a good thing but my personality needs some conflict to get the juices flowing. I would always have to arrange my days off, either from vacation days of shift trades. My Fire Chief had given me a major insubordination and written me up for my efforts, so of course the Department didn't support me!
    We have toured about 70,000 miles and visited about 200 communities in the last four years to bring a program everywhere we visit to help these communities get out and support their own people. We just put our women first like we all should in their battle against cancer. People helping people, creating a brand based on Love and Selflessness. We started with the fire service and now have included every tax based group.
    The Firefighters across the Country have adopted our "Cares Enough to Wear Pink" program due to our work and started to raise money and keep all the proceeds for the very people they serve on a daily bases in their own community. Now that we've all united for the same goal, their National leaders are asking them to give the money to one National Organization.
    We are loosing jobs, we can't keep supporting large Corporate Charities with our Labor of Love. Money is being raised and leaving our communities with a large portion of it going to salaries outside our zip codes. I am not saying that these groups don't provide a great benefit to us, but let Corporate donors keep the Corporate Charities alive with large donations and let the people create a brand to help the people. What if Cities collectively did walks and runs, fundraisers year round that helped the very people in their communities with the burden due to cancer, focusing on our women (the glue to our communities.) What if all the local business's agreed to keep all their fundraising dollars local, we then in turn would spend our hard earned dollars purchasing their goods and services. We would rebuild our communities based on Love, we would create more jobs and relieve some of the stress due to unforeseen expenses due to cancer and other health related issues.

    We are the stone cutters building the Pyramids and there are too many pharaohs (Rulers, Dictators) looking down on us stealing our labor of Love. Our Brand is bringing them down to help us move a few stones, reminding them that without us, there's no need for them. Pink Heals!

Does our movement support men and children with cancer?

 Mike Montanez with Chance a cancer survivor

Some of my closest friends where there to support the Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs as she signed her own truck, we dedicated this truck in her honor as a survivor. We need to get the Glendale Fire Department and the City as a whole to support the movement. While we have the support from the International Association of Firefighters and thousands of Cities across the Country and around the Globe, Glendale AZ and specifically the Fire Department have yet to adopt the program, please send a message asking them to support their women with this movement........Senator Lisa Baker from Pennsyvania supports our "Cares Enough to Wear Pink" movement.

All of us have to realize that our mothers love us unconditionally, that our women are the most selfless people on Earth. If we acknowledge this and always put her first we will feel the love and support from her in our own struggles with life and of course with our battle against cancer! Yes....Our program helps men as well as children, we just find the woman closest to a person and go through her for our calling of support, a grandmother, Mom, Wife, Sister, Aunt etc.....
Pink Heals!

How can you get your community to adopt our Cares Enough to Wear Pink..Pink Heals message?

 The City of Fishers IN showing their support for the women of their community and one of their own Leslie Hulse.

Grapevine TX 

Please email lisa@pinkfiretrucks.org and request information about the program. Once given the information all you have to do is take it down to your community leaders and request that they get on board this calling of support! We have found that this program is a true calling of leadership and once your community is given the right information they have to adopt this movement! This is not about money but has everything to do with LOVE, this is not about one specific disease or charity but about SELFLESSNESS. Each community that embraces this movement shows their own women that we stand as a unified front in her battle for life against Cancer. We share our brand and our movement for free, so if there is a fundraiser, 100% of the money stays local to help our women with her battle against all cancer.

Why is our movement working? Why do you need this in your community?

As a non-profit we focus on women as a whole by wearing her color, we do not focus on a specific disease like breast cancer or any other specific type of cancer. We show our love and compassion by wearing the color pink, creating a brand that aligns all of us with our women and sharing this brand for free around the Globe! We just ask that any money raised by our calling of support stay locally to help her and her family battle all types of cancer!

 Director of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano supports our program, she was one of the first to sign our pink fire trucks!

 We travel the Country collecting signatures and stories from women and her family that have battled cancer, they are who we honor, they are who we fight for!
A simple hug and a commitment to put her first by simply wearing her color can have a healing affect.
Pink Heals!

Each community and their local, State and Federal Government organizations have leaders, they are put there by the people and have to acknowledge that our women should come first in their battle for life! If we ask a Mayor, Governor, Senator or any other leader in a community to support breast cancer, they can reply that they support Diabetes. If we approach one of them and ask them to support our program, which supports all women based on Love and Respect, they have to get on board. Especially when the rally by the people and the money raised to help them, stays in their community! 

Supporting our "Cares Enough to Wear Pink" and Pink Heals Tour movement!

We are creating a movement that brings all of us together as a unified front to wage war against cancer on behalf of our women and her family. Each community that adopts our program acknowledges that our women are the most important people in our lives, that they put her first in her battle against cancer. We must make sure that all the money raised from their efforts by adopting this program stays in that community!

Pink Heals!