Construction Workers Raise Breast Cancer Awareness
BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- Tossing out the tough guy image for some pink. That's what dozens of construction workers are doing for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Andrea Fujii has the story.
Getting down and dirty in pink.
"When we first did it, they say, 'I ain't wearing no pink hard hat,'" construction worker Kenneth Scriber said. "I still catch a couple jokes about it, and then once they're aware why I wear it, then everybody says, 'OK, I understand.'"
Scriber is one of dozens of Poole and Kent workers who is donning a pink hard hat for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And his reason is personal.
"My mother is a survivor since '92 and my wife is a two-year breast cancer survivor," Scriber said.
This is the third year the company has come together for breast cancer awareness as they work on the two new women's care towers at Johns Hopkins.
Project manager Laurie Yori is a breast cancer survivor.
"Just having the support of all these guys wearing their hats and showing that they support me, they support everyone else," Yori said.
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Maryland ranks eighth in the country for the most incidents.
Men often wear pink to bring awareness to the cause. Earlier this month, players wore special shoes and laces in the Ravens-Jets game.
The workers will be wearing these hats all throughout October, and some, like Scriber, will wear his everyday.
"It's no joking no more with this cancer thing touches everybody," he said.
The number of women to die from breast cancer has been steadily decreasing since 1990. But last year the disease took nearly 40,000 lives.
In 2010, there were more than 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S.
