SAUGUS — Hard work paid off, literally, for the town’s public safety departments when their “Badges for a Cure” initiative made a $20,000 donation to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute on Tuesday.
Badges for a Cure, a joint effort between the unions representing the Police and Fire Departments, held a fundraiser at the Kowloon Tiki Bar in October to raise money for the institute, and to fund breast cancer research. The event featured performances by three comedians, the North Shore Pipe Band, the Saugus Fire & Police Joint Color Guard, and entertainment from a local DJ.
Firefighter Anthony Arone, in an interview Wednesday afternoon, said the Badges for a Cure initiative has been ongoing for a couple years now, and each year the unions have been able to raise more money for Dana Farber and the Jimmy Fund.
The annual fundraiser has drawn more and more people each year, he said, with more than 400 attending the event in October, held in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The unions were “very humbled by the response from the community,” Arone said.
“It’s obviously a cause that affects everybody in some way shape or form,” he added. “We wanted to give back to the community that gives back to us day in and day out. … It hits home for a couple people in our department.”
Arone praised the teamwork achieved between the two unions, saying the town is “very lucky” to have two groups that co-exist in the same building that get along “extremely well.”
“This is something that we together as a group said, ‘let’s do something great,’” Arone said.
The fundraising effort will continue next year, Arone said, regardless of whether or not the unions can host the event at Kowloon, with the restaurant undergoing redevelopment, with the goal of expansion.
“The hope is always to go bigger,” he said. “We’d all be happy if it was $20,001 next year.”
Fire Chief Michael Newbury praised the effort, writing in a Facebook comment that he was “so proud.”
“Always helping people is good karma,” added Capt. Billy Cross, the president of the firefighters’ union.
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].
