In the Pink!

A week ago I blogged about a photo opportunity with firefighters in pink shirts.

On Monday night, Pasadena City Council members donned pink shirts during their weekly meeting here at City Hall.

Vice Mayor Victor Gordo (left) and District 6 Councilman Steve Madison are in the top photo.

Below: District 3 Councilman Chris Holden and District 2 Councilwoman Margaret McAustin.


And here are City Clerk Mark Jomsky and Mayor Bill Bogaard:


Firefighters came in their pink shirts and received a proclamation from Mayor Bogaard for showing solidarity this week with breast cancer awareness and women's cancer research.


I snapped this shot in the anteroom behind the council chamber, with District 1 Councilwoman Jacque Robinson in the middle:


Real firefighters wear pink!

Pasadena Firefighters Go Pink!

On Monday morning, Pasadena firefighters swapped their standard uniform shirts for pink t-shirts to help raise awareness of breast cancer and women's cancer research.

As public servants, Pasadena firefighters lead by example in this community every day.

In the composite photo above, firefighters from Fire Station 34 pose with representatives from the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

We had a photo opportunity for media on Monday; firefighters will wear the pink shirts while on duty from Oct. 25 to 30.

Shirts will also be available to the public for $20 at Fire Station 34, 1360 E. Del Mar Blvd. All proceeds will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

The International Association of Firefighters logo is on the front, and the back reads “Firefighters for the Cure.”


Many thanks to the Pasadena Fire Department.

Bloggers for Racial Justice

I hosted a table at the YWCA's Women for Racial Justice breakfast this morning.

With one exception, everybody at my table was a female Pasadena blogger.

Left to right on one side of the table (above): Rev. Susan Russell (Inch at a Time blog), Meredith McKenzie (Arroyo Lover blog), Thelma Reyna (Latina/o Writers Today blog), and Patt Diroll (On the Town writer, Pasadena Star-News).

On the other side of the table (below), left to right, Dianne Patrizzi (Mademoiselle Grammophone blog), Gina Mendolo (Mendolonium blog) and Debbi Swanson Patrick (Altadena Above It All blog).


The recipient of this year's Women for Racial Justice Award is Tony Stewart, who at the tender age of 9 picketed in her hometown of Pine Bluff, Ark., when the coloreds-only library didn't have the materials she needed for a school project and the whites-only library refused to let her in. Pine Bluff police escorted her off the premises.

After the family moved to Pasadena in 1930, she served as secretary of the Pasadena branch of the NAACP from 1934 to 1936, chaired a committee that petitioned the national NAACP headquarters to charter an Altadena branch, and worked with the League of Women Voters to draft the charter for the Altadena Town Council.

Now 93, she is president emeritus of the Altadena branch of the NAACP, which she led from 1984 to 1992.

Tony was too ill to be at the awards breakfast, so her family accepted for her:


Some participants in the YWCA's Just for Girls program were at the breakfast as well; all are students at Blair and Muir high schools.


The breakfast kicked off the YWCA's Week Without Violence.


Many thanks to the YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley Chapter.