Pink Shovel Sales Raise 50k for Cancer Research

If you’ve ever bought pink snow shovels, two dollars of your purchase has gone to Eastern Maine Medical Center Cancer Care. A lot were sold- EMMC was given fifty thousand dollars from Mount Waldo Plastics to go towards the Lafayette Center in Brewer.

“To have a world class facility right in our back yard providing the best possible treatment to our friends and neighbors is exactly what we want to see,” Mike Thibodeau Owner. “So that is why it was important to us to help with the funding of that.”

Thibodeau started making pink shovels in honor of his sister Barbara Ford, a breast cancer survivor.

“I said 'make some pink snow shovels!' and he said "you know, I don't want to profit off somebody' and I said 'you know, give back.' And so that's where it began.”

Ford, says cancer is a harsh reality for her family. That’s why they have dedicated time and money to help fight the disease.

“For our family it is likely that cancer will visit again because we carry the Chek2 gene mutation and so it’s looking into the future for our children and our grandchildren and looking for a research that will help find a cure.”

Ford participated in clinical research after she was diagnosed. She stressed the importance of such practices and can attest to their success.

“Our grandmother participated in a clinical research trial nearly 30 years ago. And although she knew it was not going to cure her cancer because she was in end stage cancer, she wanted to do that to impact the future for her children and grandchildren. Now fast forward 20 years from that, a colleague of mine is diagnosed with the same type of cancer and the very research trial she did saves his life.”

Pink shovels are available for purchase at stores across the state. Jenifer Lloyd from EMMC

says that they are a unifying signal for anyone who has fought cancer.

“When folks see these pink shovels, it does a couple of things. It helps them know that they're not alone, but it also helps them have some hope because research is what we're really looking for. For hope for that patient.”