Wilmington PD Wearing, Selling Pink Patches During October

WILMINGTON, MA — The Wilmington Police Department has announced that its officers are wearing pink patches on their uniforms during October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The patches are designed to bring attention to and generate conversations about the disease, the department said.

The WPD said members of the public can buy a pink patch of their own for $10, and the proceeds will go to the Wilmington-based Hope and Friendship Metastatic Breast Cancer Foundation.

The patches are available at the front desk at the Wilmington Police Department, located at 1 Adelaide St.

The WPD is just one of several local departments participating in the Pink Patch Project.

The Tewksbury Police Department also is taking part, and it has chosen the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as its charity of choice for the project.

According to PinkPatchProject.com, the project began at the Seal Beach Police Department in California in 2013, when officers wore pink patches on their uniforms during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

In 2015, the Irwindale (California) Police Department sold their patches to the community, raising over $20,000 for City of Hope, a cancer center.

Today, the program has expanded to several hundred agencies throughout the world, including: police, sheriff, fire, EMS and federal agencies.