A Thank You from the Cinnaminson Fire Department

On behalf of the Cinnaminson Fire Department’s Breast Cancer Awareness Committee, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support with this year’s fundraising efforts. After five years of successful fundraising efforts, we knew we had to step our game up this year to top the previous years. We decided that this year we would support two worthy causes that were near and dear to our members. We decided to continue supporting Virtua’s Tyanna Barre O’Brien Breast Care Comfort Fund as we have in the past.

Knowing that the funds raised go to local women to support what they are going through during treatments was very important to us. We also decided to support the Rebecca A. Scott Memorial Scholarship Fund, which was recently started in memory of a Virtua Paramedic who lost her courageous battle with breast cancer last year at the young age of 28. This will offer scholarships to local paramedic students that we will be working with on emergency scenes in the future.

This year, we came up with the idea to “Paint The Town Pink.” We felt this was the best way to get this wonderful community to show their support to the cause. Numerous pink items were sold including bows, light bulbs, pins and custom made birdhouses. This year’s t-shirts sold more than any other shirt design we have done in past years. Our items were sold in the fire station, as well as at Nick’s Pizza, ShopRite and at the always popular Cinnaminson Day. A dine and donate was held at SweetWater Bar and Grill that was a huge success and included a raffle for great prizes that were donated by local businesses and residents.

As anyone that has ran any fundraising efforts can tell you, there are times when the events can get stressful. Assuring you have the proper items, people to help, time for events and other items can take a toll on people who are volunteering their time to make sure each event is a success. But as times got tough, we were constantly reminded of why we do this every year. This year we had the privilege of meeting a two-year survivor from Laurel Springs, NJ who had her husband bring her to the station after seeing us on Facebook late one night. Her positive attitude was an inspiration to us. We also had the honor of meeting a family who lost a great woman to breast cancer earlier in the year. After taking time to talk to the lady’s young daughter and family at Cinnaminson Day, we were reminded of the emotional toll this takes on families.

Thanks to the help and support of the department’s membership and families, as well as local residents and businesses in and around our community, this year was by far the department’s best fundraiser to date. The fire department was able to raise $8,600 that will be split between the two great causes. This is up from $4,100 raised last year. These totals are strictly from funds raised and donated to our cause. There is no money allocated to this effort from our fire department’s budget, as to not hamper our primary goal of offering fire protection to the township.

We would like to offer a special thank you to the following local businesses and organizations that assisted our fundraising efforts this year. These businesses helped our efforts by offering monetary donations, gift basket donations and locations for our sales. Without the help of these great businesses, we would not have been able to have had the success we did.

• Georgetti’s Pasta and Sauce Market
• Hunter’s Heroes Foundation
• A2Z Emblems
  
• Jaunita’s Mexican Cuisine​​​​​​​
• Mialisia Jewelry
• Union: IAFF Local 30-91
• Virtua Paramedics
• Manny’s Sicilia Restaurant
• Meetinghouse Hair
• Nick’s Pizza and Pasta
• Riverton Health and Fitness
• Scentsy by Patti Clancy
• Ship Shape Candles
• ShopRite of Cinnaminson
• SweetWater Bar and Grill

Again, thank you to all that have supported this effort throughout the years. This year was an overwhelming success, and we plan on making next year even better than this one. For more information on our breast cancer fundraising efforts, please visit our website, www.cinnaminsonfire.org, or our social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter.

Respectfully,

James Clancy Jr.

Firefighter/EMT

Cinnaminson Fire Department