Breast cancer awareness ambulance
Next month, a peculiar sight could accompany the familiar sound of county emergency vehicles’ sirens: a bright pink ambulance staffed by city EMTs intended to raise awareness of breast cancer.
The Prince George’s County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department is slated to add the ambulance, decked out with decals of the awareness movement’s iconic pink ribbon, to its units stationed in College Park by mid-May, chief spokesman Mark Brady said.
“We’ve changed the graphic layout for the entire fleet for the fire and EMS department on all new vehicles that are coming in,” said Jeff Callaway, a fire department technical writer and graphic artist who helped with the fleetwide redesign and the pink ambulance’s detailing. “We went to a color scheme that is pretty bold.”
The new ambulance wa on display from April 7 through 12 at the Fire Department Instructors Conference in Indianapolis and will be delivered to the county department. The ambulance will join the PGFD Pink Pumper, an engine the department wrapped in pink vinyl sheets in 2012 as part of its breast cancer awareness efforts.
Over the past few years, Brady said, the county department has encouraged its firefighters and paramedics to get involved with breast cancer awareness. October will mark the third year county firefighters and paramedics can swap out their standard work shirts for pink T-shirts during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
“Each year, there’s a new design,” Brady said. “That encourages people to buy the T-shirt, and the proceeds from that go into a fund that we distribute to different organizations for breast cancer awareness and research.”
About three years ago, several firefighters approached the county department with plans to make a more widespread impact on awareness, eventually resulting in the Pink Pumper project.
Since its unveiling in fall 2012, the Pink Pumper has responded to fire and emergency medical services calls while making appearances at area events, advocating breast cancer awareness and research, Brady said.
“I would say we probably had about 40 to 50 events we visited last year,” he said. “With this new unit, we’ll be able to visit even more because a lot of events were held on the same days or same month.”
The pink ambulance will join the College Park station’s two existing transport units, which are scheduled for replacement, a factor Brady said played into the county’s decision to send the new ambulance to this city’s station.
The county also plans to roll out a brand-new engine wrapped in pink, most likely within the year, he said.
“We’ll actually have three units throughout Prince George’s County that on a day-to-day basis are running calls,” Brady said. “On particular event days, we’ll place them out of service, replace them with another unit and then have that pink unit go participate in awareness efforts.”
The new vehicles point toward the county’s dedication to aiding breast cancer awareness and research initiatives, Callaway said.
“This is the department jumping in, both feet, to show our commitment,” he said.
