Wyandotte Firefighters Dressed to Educate

Wyandotte firefighters will be looking a bit more casual this month, but hope that the message they’re wearing will be noticed more than anything else.

Starting today, Wyandotte firefighters will be replacing their normal uniform with a blue and pink T-shirt in honor of October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The shirts have a traditional pink ribbon on the front and a firefighter-themed ribbon on the back.

Firefighter Brendt Frederick, who is organizing the monthlong event, designed the back logo.

“Something came to me with the pink ribbon and I thought it’d be cool if it kind of looked like a fire hose since we’re firefighters,” he said. “We’ll be visible in the front and in the back to help raise awareness. … It’s the Wyandotte firefighters doing their part to help out.”

The shirts will be worn during all shifts, but won’t be visible on fire runs as they’ll be worn under the firefighters’ turnout gear.

This is the first time that Wyandotte firefighters have taken up a monthlong campaign; however, they routinely donate money to various causes in the city, Frederick said.

“We want people to know that we’re active participants in the city and we don’t just come, go to work and then go home,” he said. “We want to be active participants in our city and we want to help out in any causes we can.

“It’s very hard, nowadays, to find somebody who hasn’t been affected by cancer. … It’s something that I believe anybody can relate to."

The shirts are available for purchase for $15 at Fire Station No. 1, at the corner of Third and Maple. All sizes are available. Proceeds will be donated to the Yes Ma’am Program at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, which provides free mammograms to women without insurance and other means of being screened.

Wyandotte business owners have banded together to host several "Paint the Town Pink" events throughout October for breast cancer awareness. For more information, check out our full event guide, as well as the event's Facebook page.