Bethlehem Firefighters are in Pink for October

If you drove past a Bethlehem fire station in the past week, you might have done a double take for what you thought you might have seen.

Yes. The firefighters are wearing pink t-shirts.

All through the month of October – in recognition of – city firefighters have been given permission to wear the pink as an official uniform option.

And you can dress like a Bethlehem firefighter too. The shirts are for sale for $10 ($12 for sizes XX-Large and bigger) at a number of locations in and near the city, including the gift shop at in Fountain Hill.

The shirts feature the same lettering and logos as the standard issue navy t-shirts city firefighters typically wear, except they are pink and feature a pink ribbon on the right sleeve.

The shirts are a fundraiser sponsored by the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 735, the Bethlehem firefighters’ union. The proceeds are going to the St. Luke’s Hospital Cancer Research Center.

The international union and other locals have encouraged members to wear pink for breast cancer awareness month for several years, but this is the first time Bethlehem has joined the effort, said Local 735 President Dave Saltzer.

Only a week into October, more than $4,000 has been raised through shirt sales, said Brian Padilla, a city firefighter who has led the effort.

It was Padilla who forged the partnership with St. Luke’s, got the shirts printed, got uniform permission from department leadership and found establishments willing to sell them. He carries them around in the back of his car and sells them to anyone who asks.

Padilla said he lost his mother to cancer – though it was not breast cancer. Nonetheless, he said he wasn’t spearheading this fundraiser for any “personal reason,” other than to help others.

Several of his family members have been stricken by cancer, he said, but he knows everyone has family and friends who have also suffered. “I’m doing it as a general cancer awareness,” he said. “I’m doing it for me and you and for everyone.”

Padilla said he has been “shocked” at how the community has embraced the shirt sales. Initially, he said, he had 144 of the shirts printed. “I didn’t know whether I was going to sell one, a hundred or 200,” he said.

So far, more than 2,000 have been sold. “It’s gone ridiculously well,” Padilla said. “I’m shocked.”

A few have resisted, saying they don’t like wearing pink, most city firefighters have been very supportive, Padilla said. At the John L. Schweder Fire Station on Fourth Street in South Bethlehem, most of the men on B shift Thursday afternoon were wearing their pink shirts.

“I don’t wear pink either in September or November,” Padilla said. But in October he does and will, happily.

Pink uniform Bethlehem Fire Department t-shirts are available at the Schweder Fire station, 419 E. Fourth St., and at all four locations of MP Uniform & Supply Co., including stores at 2733 W. Emmaus Ave., and 2109 Freemansburg Ave.