Community Corner

'Pink Heals' Tour Brings People-Centered Message to Moffitt

Pink fire trucks are at the heart of Dave Graybill's drive to raise awareness and money for women in their fight against cancer. More than 1,000 cities have been visited, including Tampa in October.

Dave Graybill loves women.

He’s not a promiscuous Casanova. He genuinely respects, cares about and celebrates the female gender.

“Once we empowered our women in this country, we became an efficient machine,” he said.

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Now, he strives to empower communities across the country with his “Pink Heals Tour,” an Arizona-based movement he started five years ago to help raise awareness and money for women and take the focus away from corporate fundraising.

“It’s always about causes and not about people,” he said. “… I created a program to inspire communities to fundraise for people and not their own charities.”

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Graybill, a former firefighter and Major League Baseball player, travels throughout the United States and Canada for five months out of the year. He brings with him pink fire trucks covered with signatures of women who have survived cancer or know someone who has.

The money that the organization raises stays in the community where it is collected, benefiting local charities and nonprofit groups that support women.

Although Graybill never had any cancer issues in his family, a co-worker's struggle with the disease was what got him started.

“One day I had an epiphany,” he said. “I asked myself, ‘What if we as men started fighting cancer and standing up for our women?’” The Pink Heals tour has visited more than 1,000 cities, including Tampa.

Graybill and his trucks were at Moffitt Cancer Center on Oct. 3.

“The goal is to raise awareness of all cancers that have to do with women,” said Richard Hauser, secretary and treasurer of the Hillsborough Firefighters Benevolent Relief Fund. “It’s not strictly breast cancer.”

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue worked with Moffitt to organize the event. This is the second year they’ve been involved. The Moffitt lawn popped with pink. Hillsborough Firefighters wore pink shirts, and Moffitt volunteers and employees signed the pink firetrucks.

Cookie Bodenstein, a Moffitt volunteer for 11 years, signed for her two sisters who are breast cancer survivors. Stephanie Wright, a Moffitt occupational therapist from Wesley Chapel, signed for her best friend who started chemotherapy the next day and her aunt and grandmother who are survivors.

The firetrucks are maintained and fueled with money from T-shirt and hat sales, and each truck is named after a woman who struggled with cancer.

Graybill said he would like to march his firetrucks on Washington, D.C., and ask for a National Pink Heals Day. The move would raise further awareness of his campaign, and therfore, support for women.

“I’m just bringing love,” he said.


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