COVER STORY
A group of female officers from PBA Locals in Bergen County formed the Ladies in Blue
Fighting in Pink four years ago and have been making a contribution that only cops
can to the support and awareness needed in the fight against breast cancer.
■ BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Washington Township Officer Heather Castronova had an idea to
form a team of cops to join the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
Walk. So she made a phone call to her friend, Old Tappan Officer
Kathryn Weaver, and they called their Pascack Valley Local 206 President Bridget Jennings, a Woodcliff Lake cop. Local 206 donated
some seed money. Another call led to another, and within a few
weeks they had more than 30 active and retired female officers from
counties throughout northern New Jersey forming the “Ladies in
Blue Fighting in Pink” that united for the 2011 Walk.
The next year, the “Ladies” put up a Facebook page, created a
website and went viral. And in the past four years, the group has
become a walking, talking, growing, motivating, mobile support
system for those in the fight, and a titanic force to raise awareness
for breast cancer. Adorned with their beguiling T-shirts and unyielding perseverance, the Ladies in Blue Fighting in Pink have created
an esteemed presence in the fight against cancer.
“Never have I met a group of women
so selfless in their careers,
so selfless in their relentless pursuit
to change the world.”
KATIE CHIECO
“Never have I met a group of women so selfless in their careers,
so selfless in their relentless pursuit to change the world,” interjects
Katie Chieco, a community manager for the American Cancer Society who was working at the Washington Township PD where she
suggested to Castronova that making the Walk could be a way to
honor her mother who had cancer.
“You see in the amount of people that show up and in the amount
of dollars they raise that they are fearless leaders,” Chieco continues.
“They show their pride on their shirts, their hats and their uniforms.
They are fearless in their jobs
and their mindset.”
PHOTO BY GREG PALLANTE
Back row, from left:
Sergeant Jennings Woodcliff, Officer
Kathryn Weaver, Detective Rachel
Morgan, Officer Niamh McGuinness,
Officer Valeri Guglielmotti.
Front row, from left, Officer Heather
Castronova, Officer Ana P. Bedoya,
Sergeant Christina Rae.
Let’s face it guys: You all
know that when a group of
females comes together, they
can accomplish just about
anything. And when a group of
female cops comes together,
well, they believe they can
change the world. Maybe it’s
how strong the propensity to help people or the intensity to run into
the fray when others run away that compels the Ladies in Blue
Fighting in Pink to believe and achieve.
Inherent in this group of women, you see, is a sisterhood
spawned from the brotherhood of law enforcement. And if actions
do speak louder than words, these female officers are intent on taking aim and targeting cancer and proving that we can patrol for a
cure, lock up cancer and they can teach us all that cancer is a word,
not a sentence.
“Right underneath the thin blue line, we have the thin pink line
that bonds us,” asserts Detective Rachel Morgan, Paramus Local 186
member and perhaps the most renowned of all the Ladies in Blue
as the 2011 NAPO Top Cops honoree. “Females have that internal
voice that tells them to latch on to other girls in the same profession
because we go through things that the guys can’t understand like
being pregnant and trying to fit into a uniform or fitting into a vest
after having a mastectomy. We might be a small group, but great
things come in small packages.”
Our Fair Ladies
The fundamental message, of course, from the Ladies is all about
breast cancer awareness. Considering that October is breast cancer
awareness, let’s start with some awareness: Chieco submits that one
in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer, but through
events like the Walk that attracts some 12,000 participants and generates more than $600,000 in donations, funds are raised to help the
American Cancer Society save 490 lives per day.
So October naturally sweeps up people like cops who have the
DNA to help whomever and wherever, and it especially sweeps up
female cops. Jennings, who served as the nine-town Local 206 president for two years and is still a member of the executive board, saw
her department experience the awareness by starting to wear pink
hats throughout the month.
But with awareness comes a feeling. There are no words to
describe it, save for the welling up around the eyes and the
heaviness near the heart. With one in eight diagnosed, breast cancer
touches everybody, and this feeling pervades the Ladies in Blue
Fighting in Pink.
“I’ve never been in one place with so many female police officers
in my entire life,” Castronova recalls of the first October with the
Ladies. “I was so touched that everybody came together from all
these different departments for one cause. And everybody had their
own story.”
That first year, six officers walking were breast cancer survivors.
One was Local 206 member Valeri Guglielmotti, a River Vale officer.
In July 2009, Guglielmotti just had a miscarriage when she told her
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www.njcopsmagazine.com
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OCTOBER 2015
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