Pink Heals supporting people, not causes
It all started because of mechanical difficulties. The firefighters in Bella Vista heard about a group of out-of-state firefighters stranded on the Arkansas-Missouri state line. When they got to the scene to offer help, they found a pink fire truck. Now Bella Vista has it's own chapter of Pink Heals, headed up by firefighters Seth Kallick and Greg Mills.
Pink Heals is a nonprofit that aids other nonprofits. Although they're not connected with the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the group that uses the pink ribbon symbol, Founder Dave Graybill said he chose pink for a specific reason.
“It's a women's color,” he said, adding, “The first thing a man needs to do, is to take care of women.” Because women take care of the family, they need someone to focus on them.
“We're a program that's loved based, not caused based,” he said.
Pink Heals doesn't focus on any one disease or condition. They travel the country and help nonprofits with fundraising events. They also visit patients. The eye-catching pink trucks are like a billboard, drawing people in. Graybill said they research other nonprofits before they agree to work with them, so a pink truck is like an endorsement.
Pink Heals is all volunteer, Graybill said. No one gets a salary. At most stops they sell their own merchandise, including shirts and hats. All of that money goes to keep the trucks on the road.
Vicki Maddux, a retired emergency dispatcher, was driving the bus when Pink Heals came through Bella Vista last week. She said a woman recently followed their caravan of bright pink vehicles for miles.
“She wanted to sign the truck,” she said.
The trucks visited Highlands Oncology in Rogers on Aug. 29 and Sugar Hill Center in Bella Vista on Aug. 30.
The ladder truck that accompanied them is decorated with superheroes and children. It represents GunnersKids.org, an organization that focuses on children who have experienced adversity and children who help.
Nationally, Pink Heals owns 155 trucks, Graybill said. Most of them are retired emergency vehicles that the group paints pink. Maddux was driving a retired city bus filled with T-shirts. Some of the vehicles have been donated to chapters of Pink Heals. Others were purchased at a discounted rate.
The national tour travels eight to 10 months each year. When they stop, patients and survivors, as well as the family of victims, are given the chance to sign one of the vehicles. Although they use permanent marker, eventually the writing fades into the pink paint, so all the names become part of the truck, Maddux said. Each truck is named after a woman who lost her fight to cancer.
Recently a pink SUV has been parked at Bella Vista Fire Station No. 1, Kallick said. He brought it to a few events, but it was here temporarily while he and Mills did some mechanical work on it. So far the Bella Vista chapter doesn't have a pink truck. But they do have some T-shirts both to sell and for firefighters to wear when they volunteer their time.
“We'll visit individuals and bring them some love,” Kallick explained.