MONROE, CT — Monroe Public Works employees can often be seen wearing pink T-shirts over their work clothes while doing roadwork and other jobs around town this October. The shirts are being worn in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, during which they raised $300 to be donated to the Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven Heath.
“This year my father’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Josh Krize, a maintainer three and a former Monroe fire chief. “This year it hits home a little more. A couple guys lost family members to cancer over the last year. Everyone has been touched by it one way or another.”
“We’re a tight-knit group,” said Chris Caulfield, a crew leader. “We spend a lot of time together. When one of us hurts, the rest of us feel it.”
The highway department employees’ union held the fundraiser, which was organized by Krize. DPW employees bought the T-shirts to raise the money for the Smilow Cancer Hospital.
On Wednesday morning the co-workers posed for a group photo in the town garage parking lot on Purdy Hill Road.
From left to right in this story’s lead photo is Shane Everetts, Jim Waite, Niko DiGirolamo, Eron Plue, Al Gorham, Jake Steel, Travis Quinlan, Eric Caterson, Colby Mickle, Chris Caulfield, Paul Zelanin, John DelVento, Josh Krize, Deputy Public Works Director Bill Phillips, Jack Eck, Ed Vayan and Public Works Director Chris Nowacki.
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Thank you Monroe DPW!