Sault company gives Breast Cancer Awareness Month a lift (3 photos)

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and this year, the Sault’s Service Rentals & Sales is raising awareness even higher.

60 feet high, to be exact.

Service Rentals & Sales, a heavy equipment rental business located on Sackville Road next door to sister company National Supply, has unveiled a specially-repainted telescopic boom man lift that will be used to promote breast cancer awareness and research.

The lift, used primarily at construction and industrial sites across the north, was dismantled so each piece could be custom painted pink and black.

“That boom lift needed to be completely redone during the summer months, so I decided it would be a good opportunity to do something different. I went out and picked bubble gum-coloured pink paint and just went with it, because I knew October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” said Jenn McGonegal, Service Rentals & Sales service manager and safety trainer, speaking to SooToday.

“My grandmother, my aunt and a few other relatives have had breast cancer and had to go through a lot of suffering, but they fought hard and managed to overcome,” Jenn said.

“Cancer is a horrible disease, and breast cancer in particular has affected so many of our friends and family that I felt that we had to do our part to help. It was a lot of work and time, but I believe it was definitely worth it.”

As of Thursday Sept. 27, the pink lift was on rental at the Sault Ste. Marie Airport.

“People in planes will see it now,” Jenn chuckled.

As the lift gets rented by various businesses around the Sault and area in October, a portion of the proceeds from each rental (it costs $3,000 to rent the unit for a week) will go to breast cancer treatment and research, possibly to Toronto’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Jenn said, though the exact destination for the proceeds has not yet been finalized.

“I called Tyler (Perin, of the Sault’s Classic Signs, located in the Industrial Park west of Great Northern Road) and asked him to help me out with the stickers for it. He made some beautiful stickers for it, and when Classic Signs found out what was going on, they ended up donating all the stickers and all their time, which was amazing.”

Service Rentals & Sales and National Supply has also done prostate cancer fundraisers, and an annual company barbecue donates funds to charity.