By Isiah REYES

Glendale Police Dept. Lt. Tim Feeley was announced as the Army of Pink campaign winner for leading the fight against breast cancer during the month of October.

Feeley was among six Glendale influential men who were nominated, including Glendale City Manager Scott Ochoa, Dr. Harlan Gibbs, GAMC Emergency Dept., GUSD board of education President Greg Krikorian, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian of the (Western Diocese) Armenian Church, and Deputy Chief Glendale Fire Dept.  Greg Fish.

“I’m honored to have been part of this for a couple reasons,” Feeley said. “For one, my mom was in Glendale Adventist Medical [Center] in her final days and the care that she got here was phenomenal. So I really needed to be a part of something for Glendale Adventist. The second was my mother-in-law passed away of breast cancer in February this year. That gave me a lot of motivation to be a part of this.”

The six men were led by Army of Pink captain Elissa Glickman, CEO of Glendale Arts. The goal of the Army of Pink campaign was to raise awareness about breast cancer and early detection as well as to let the public know about resources available to them at the hospital.

“Along the way I sort of saw it as fun and [I was] not really taking it seriously at first. But once you start to meet a lot of the survivors it’s heart wrenching to hear what people are going through,” Feeley said. “So the more that we can get the message out the better.”

There were more than 94,000 votes from residents who voted for their favorite candidate online. The campaign voting ended on Oct. 26.

Part of what helped Feeley receive the highest number of votes was a viral video he made where he eats an onion and dog food as a challenge. He said he decided to make the video when he saw that Ochoa suddenly took a lead in votes and he needed to do something to catch up.

The candidates increased breast cancer awareness by handing out personalized campaign materials, flyers and other creative pink breast cancer materials during the month of October with the aim of getting the community more involved.

“We are the given the gift of hope and wisdom from God to make sure that we can change the lives of people [so they can] live comfortably and have a healthy life,” said Archbishop Derderian. “With the Army of Pink mission, we wanted to make sure we were able to raise awareness to prevent cancer, especially in the lives of women.”

  Isiah REYES