Real firefighters wear pink, said Jeff Toynbee, Benicia Fire Department engineer and a member of the Benicia Firefighters Association IAFF Local 1186.

Benicia Fire Department employees have been wearing pink ribbons and specially made black shirts with a pink ribbon design this month to promote awareness of those fighting breast cancer.

“In honoring women that are fighting breast cancer, we are ‘Caring Enough to Wear Our Pink Ribbons!’” Toynbee said, referring to the awareness campaign.

Firefighters have been wearing the black and pink attire throughout October, and are selling black and pink shirts at Fire Station 11, 150 Military West, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The station is closed from noon to 1 p.m.

Cost of the shirt is $20, Toynbee said, and the proceeds are donated to a breast cancer charity selected by a woman who is all too familiar with the disease.

“This year, we have honored the city’s very own Peggy Mekki, who is enduring her own personal battle with breast cancer,” he said. Mekki chose Okizu, a children’s camp in Northern California that for the past 30 years has offered peer support, respite, mentoring and recreation programs for families of those affected by childhood cancer.

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