Ambulance colors show support for cancer campaign, March of Dimes

By Tara Kaprowy

LA 31, Ambulance Inc. of Laurel County’s newest ride, stood in a garage Wednesday waiting for its new paint job. With its cab covered with a fresh coat of light lavender and its patient compartment recently scraped of its former self, the ambulance was primed for celebrity.

“It will take two to three hours,” auto body mechanic Mike Hill said of the project.

Then LA 31 will forever become known as “the purple ambulance.”

Yes, Ambulance Inc. is adding another brightly-hued unit to its fleet, this one in honor of March of Dimes.

“Susan Carpenter, one of the board members, is affiliated with March of Dimes,” Chief Jimmy Bridges said. “The idea came from her.”

“I’ve been involved with the March of Dimes for over 15 years,” Carpenter said. “It’s always been near and dear. When the pink ambulance was such a hit, I thought why not something else that is near and dear? What else, but the March of Dimes? It’s a great organization.”

Indeed, the purple ambulance follows the addition of LA 30, which was painted pink thanks to the insistence of two Ambulance Inc. EMTs, Missy Bowling and Tracey Walker.

“We were in paramedics class one day and we saw a picture of a pink fire truck,” Walker said. “That truck got started because the female firefighter that drove it died from breast cancer.”

It didn’t take Walker and Bowling long to start dreaming of a pink ambulance for the Ambulance Inc. fleet. They approached owner Bill Smith with their idea.

“He said, ‘Aww, we don’t need no pink ambulance,’” Walker laughed. “But when I said it would be to support cancer, he’s like, ‘Well, I like that idea.’”

So, Smith pitched it to the Ambulance Inc. board, suggesting that $2 be donated to the American Cancer Society for each run the pink ambulance makes.

“Members actually had different opinions,” Bridges said. “Some of them said, ‘You guys are crazy’ and some of them were like, ‘We love it.’”

Walker learned LA 30 would become a reality when Smith called her.

“He said, ‘You need to come down and get your stickers ready for your truck,’” Walker said. “The truck had been painted before I even knew it was a go.”

The pink ambulance hit the road about six weeks ago and already has deep meaning for its EMTs and paramedics. While the truck was being painted, EMT Rhonda Hibbits was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“It had a very significant meaning before, but now it has a profound meaning for us because of Rhonda,” Walker said.

Cpt. David Seals’ sister Vonda Fields Martin, who died of breast cancer at the age of 32, and longtime Ambulance Inc. employee and cancer survivor Valerie Phelps are also remembered.

Reaction to the pink ambulance has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I haven’t heard one person say they don’t like it,” Bridges said. “People who go by it on the roads have called in and said they love the pink ambulance. They think it is an eye-catcher.”

One family was so moved by the vehicle they made a donation to the ACS after their loved one was taken to the hospital in it.

Paramedic Charles Bowman, one of LA 30’s drivers, humbly accepted the donation.

“To me, it’s just an ambulance but at the same time, I support what it represents,” he said. “It puts awareness out there and makes people more conscious that cancers do kill.”

While pink, which is the signature color of breast cancer awareness, the side of the ambulance has ribbons painted on it that honor all types of cancer.

When asked of their significance, Bowman pulls out a well-worn “cheat sheet” of sorts.

The navy ribbon is in honor of colon cancer, pearl for lung cancer, blue for prostate, black for melanoma, orange for leukemia, purple for pancreatic, teal for ovarian and lavender for all cancers.

Ideas for a third symbolically painted — LA 32? — are already swirling at the Ambulance Inc. station.

“Right now, we’re going to stop at pink and purple, but if we do another one, it would probably be in support of our troops,” Bridges said.

LA 31, aka the purple ambulance, will be unveiled in May, in time for the March of Dimes’ March for Babies. As is the case with its pink sister, $2 will be donated to the March of Dimes for every run the purple ambulance makes.

Staff writer Tara Kaprowy can be reached by e-mail at tkaprowy@sentinel-echo.com.

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