PASCACK VALLEY—Get this year’s pink ball cap in support of October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month Pink Hat Campaign. Retired Park Ridge Police Lt. Nick Errico can help you out.
Moreover, dozens of departments of the Pascack Valley’s and Northern Valley’s (and Passaic County’s) bravest and finest can take your tax-deductible donation for such a cap, and would be delighted to.
Errico, of Harrington Park, launched the campaign in 2012 for October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month to spread the word about and and support breast cancer awareness and research, betting personalized pink hats for police officers and firemen to wear on duty would turn heads and help get the job done.
Errico tells Pascack Press the effort “has since expanded to many locales within the community supporting this great cause. All proceeds are donated to OctoberWoman Foundation for Breast Cancer Research based in Park Ridge. This foundation generously matches the amount raised, and the money is then donated to the Columbia University Medical Center.”
Errico says the project has the enthusiastic involvement of police chiefs, fire chiefs, police unions, and businesses. It is not unusual at town council meetings for mayors and councilpeople promoting hat sales.
“Chiefs in the surrounding towns all wanted to get involved. And people wanted to help,” he said.
The Erricos say they hope that money raised from selling the hats, which are $25 each, will help find a cure for the disease.
Since 2012 Errico’s effort has raised more than $270,000 for research and a patient wellness program. And there’s special passion driving Errico: his wife, Carla, has long been in treatment — from six years before the campaign’s launch — and now he has battled cancer as well. (Though he’s quick to say what he had is not as daunting as what his wife has been tireless in fighting.)
The hat campaign took a hiatus in recent years with all else that Covid-19 disrupted, and Errico says momentum is building back up.
He gives special thanks to The OctoberWoman Foundation for Breast Cancer Research for its generous contributions to the Pink Hat Campaign.
The foundation says it was created in 1994 by the DiBella family as a means to raise money and awareness in the field of breast cancer after losing loved ones to the disease.
“Since that time, the founders have worked to expand their supporter base and broaden their outreach. They have instituted a new name — one that will call to mind all the women who struggle every day with breast cancer. They now call themselves OctoberWoman — for the month dedicated worldwide as a special one in the fight against the disease. This new name broadened the foundation’s outreach, but did not change the foundation’s basics. The same strong mission remains.”
OctoberWoman says that since 1994 it has donated more than $2,250,000 to fund breast cancer research.
In 2001, the foundation says, celebrated actor James Gandolfini returned home to Park Ridge “to lend support to his hometown charity, The OctoberWoman Foundation for breast cancer research.” He brought along fellow “Sopranos” cast member Aida Turturro.
And with OctoberWoman’s help, Columbia University Medical Center launched the first clinical trial in novel vaccine therapies for treating women with advanced breast cancer.
In May 2006 OctoberWoman hosted the first Annual Pink Ribbon Walk with the help of Park Ridge Animal Hospital and Interstate Waste Services. The walk raised more than $50,000 with a portion of the proceeds given to the MASK Foundation in memory of Dr. Maryanne Kern, a wife, mom and veterinarian from Park Ridge Animal Hospital.
OctoberWoman says it has has grown to “more than 5,000 supporters, both individuals and corporations, who generously contribute time and money to help in the fight against breast cancer. Corporate sponsorship has been vital in helping us achieve the level of research dollars we have granted thus far.”
See octoberwoman.org for much more information, including additional highlights of its successes amid the outstanding need.
Pink Hats are custom made and cost $25. Payment is accepted through check or Venmo @PinkHatCampaign. To purchase a custom hat in support of breast cancer awareness, visit https://pinkhatcampaign.com, write pinkhatcampaign@gmail.com or see a participating department, agency, or business.