South Florida Business Is "Cutting For The Cure"
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- You may have seen them around Miami-Dade. Bright pink landscaping trucks and trailers. A fleet of pink bucket trucks and pickups and more, all emblazoned with the slogan "cutting for the cure." What's it all about?
Steve Moring, owner of Steve's Tree and Landscape, stood beside one of his big pink trailers Wednesday and explained.
"This is a tribute to my mother," he said. Moring's mother lost her battle with breast cancer.
"My mom passed away in 2003," Moring said. "She fought for eight years."
But more cancer would propel Moring's pink trucks. His wife, Gisela, lost her mother, Maura, to uterine cancer when her mom was just 45 and Gisela was a teen.
"Sixteen. It was very hard for me," Gisela said.
And before the pink paint went on the family company's trucks there would be more pain. On all of the trucks and trailers there is also a blue ribbon that reads "help fight ovarian cancer."
Gisela Moring, you see, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012.
"Unfortunately my wife has had to suffer," Steve Moring said, his voice choking as the two sat together in their Palmetto Bay home.
But through surgery, chemotherapy and more, Gisela has counted her blessings.
"I am very happy," she said. "I'm thankful for the family I have, that God gave me."
After his mom's diagnosis, son Mark had a eureka moment.
"He jumped up and he said, 'Dad, I got it! It's cutting for the cure. Let's cut for the cure,'" Steve Moring quoted his son as saying.
So a fleet of pink now tackles big jobs, like trimming the trees at the Trump Resort in Doral, and small jobs at single family homes, all the while raising awareness.
The Foundation For Women's Cancer receives a portion of the company's revenues, and revenues are on the rise. Moring says in 18 months, the pink trucks have attracted more than 300 new customers, like the Wechsler's in Palmetto Bay.
"I've seen the trucks and I've decided I wanted to reach out to him," said Julie Wechsler. "I think it's a great cause."
At every job, crew members leave a pink ribbon behind, hanging on a branch. A symbol of the work they're about.
"I feel good about myself," said worker Eddie Nunez as he operated a bucket truck, trimming palm fronds at the Trump Resort. "I feel good that I'm doing something for a good cause, and it makes the job worthwhile."
It is a job with a singular, determined goal.
"Find a cure for cancer, that's what we want to do," Steve Moring said Thursday. "That's what my hope is - before I leave this planet, that there's been a cure found."
It is hope for a cure, propelled by every palm that's trimmed, every blade of grass cut...pretty in pink.