SILVERHILL, Ala. — Chances are, if you’ve seen the pink fire truck around, then you’ve also seen the pink police car.

In fact, there are two cars, and for Glen Davies, owner of Custom Order Police Specialties (C.O.P.S.), outfitting the cars has been a personal journey.

A native of Michigan, Davies began customizing police cars while working as a police officer in his home state.

“I didn’t like the way they were outfitting the cars,” he said, “so I took one of the cars and decided to redo it myself and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

That was 18 years ago. When he moved to the area five years later, he continued to customize police cars while working as a reserve officer with different departments.

In 2008, he was working for the Summerdale Police Department when Ashley Witherington, wife of fellow officer Randy Witherington, was diagnosed with lung cancer.

“It was her dream to have a pink police car,” Davies said. “It was something we kept saying we were going to do, but kept putting it off.”

Then on Dec. 20, 2011, Ashley contacted her husband and told him they had to go buy a car that day.

“He tried to put it off, but she said, ‘No, it has to be today,’” Davies said.

They found a car on Govdeals.com through the Creola Police Department and purchased it.

On Dec. 21, 2011, Ashley Witherington died.

After that, redoing the car into her dream of having a pink police car became a personal mission for Randy Witherington and Davies.

“He brought it to me and we began tearing it down and cleaning it up,” Davies said.

They were able to find people and businesses to donate labor and parts and were able to complete the car in about four months.

Almost from the beginning, the pink police car was in high demand, appearing in parades and other cancer-related events, such as the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

It wasn’t long before Davies and Witherington began looking for a second car.

About a year ago, another car became available, this time donated from the Pennington Police Department in Butler County.

After issues arose within the department, they were able to get the car turned over to Cancer C.O.P.S., an organization formed in Ashley Witherington’s memory. While the name uses the same initials as his business, it has a different meaning. It stands for Caring Officers Providing Support.

“The idea behind Cancer C.O.P.S. is to be able to raise money to send those diagnosed with cancer and their families on a getaway vacation,” Davies said. “We all loved Ashley and Randy and of course we understood, but more and more as her health began to deteriorate, we could see that he became more and more focused on her. We wanted to do something to take these families away from that ‘us against the disease’ mentality, even if it’s only for a little while.”

As of now, however, the organization is unable to receive direct donations until they can receive 501 (c) 3 status.

“Right now we can only receive donations toward the upkeep and maintenance of the cars,” Davies said. “It’s something that Randy is working on and hopefully we’ll be able to achieve that soon.”

In all, he said, the second car took about eight months to complete. It was ready to take its place among the pink car fleet in February of this year.

“We have received offers to buy the cars, so getting a third car is definitely something we want to do,” he said. “The Foley Police Department has offered to donate a car, once we receive 501 (c) 3 status.”

From donations of labor to monetary donations, the current pink police car was truly a community-wide effort, Davies said.

On the trunk of the car are listed all of those who donated labor, parts and money, including Davies’ mother and step-father, Dr. David Dow and Figes Davies Dow; and sister and brother-in-law, Grant and Martha MacRae.

Bobby Holland of Holland’s Paint and Body in Robertsdale performed all the paint work on the car with paint provided by the organization, Davies said, and Performance Graphics in Robertsdale did the graphics work on the car.

Wilson’s Automotive and Blue Steel Auto Repair also worked on the vehicle and Robert and Sarah Northan of Jubilee Interiors did all the interior work, while Go Rhino did the vehicle’s front bumper.

Other donations have been received from Coastal Industrial Supply, Lucky’s Pawn Shop, All-Star RV, Sound Off Signal, Santa Cruz Gun Locks and Jared Melton.

The project has taken on an even more personal meaning for Davies after he was recently diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.

“I am at Stage 0, which means it could be three years, or it could be 10 years before I develop any symptoms of the disease, but I do have it,” he said. “Right now, I’m shooting for the 10 years. I know one of the main things I have to do at this point is to keep a positive attitude and the way I figure it, the less I know about the disease at this point the better.”

If you would like to know more about the organization, contact Davies at 251-945-1967.