SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Local firefighters swear by one truth: Real men wear pink.

And members of Spanish Fort Fire and Rescue want everybody in Baldwin County—and beyond—to follow suit by purchasing the department’s unique, cotton candy-colored “Cares Enough” T-shirt with proceeds benefiting cancer research and awareness.

The T-shirts cost $10 each and are available at Fire Station One on Spanish Fort Boulevard, across from City Hall, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or through the department’s website at www.spanishfortfire.org.

Each participating department in Baldwin County will sell their own shirts as part of the national “Cares Enough to Wear Pink” program that raises money for the Arizona-based Guardians of the Ribbon via the annual “Pink Heals” tour. The tour, in its fourth year, will make a brief stop in Baldwin County in October.

Capt. Brad Jernigan, who is coordinating efforts in Spanish Fort, said he learned about the program through a fellow firefighter in Orange Beach whose wife has waged a lengthy battle with breast cancer. Jernigan said the woman he considered a second mother succumbed to the disease, herself, so he has intimate knowledge of the toll cancer takes on families.

The cross-country tour brings pink fire trucks—painted to honor those women who have both survived and lost their battles with cancer—to communities to spread awareness, and Jernigan said the cause has been passionately adopted countywide.

Although departments in Orange Beach, Spanish Fort, Daphne, Fairhope and Loxley did not join the national effort quickly enough to make it onto the list of 2010 tour dates, Jernigan said organizers have agreed to make on hour-long stopover Oct. 2 as the pink truck parade travels from Tallahassee, Fla., to Starkville, Miss.

“The request has gone out to all the fire departments to try and line (Alabama

Highway) 59 wearing their pink shirts and really make a good showing. Anybody who’s ever been touched by cancer, this is an incredibly memorable event for them,” he said.

The ultimate goal, Jernigan said, is for the Lower Alabama chapter of the Guardians of the Ribbon to raise $30,000—two thirds of which would be used to purchase the chapter’s own pink truck and the remaining $10,000 donated to a trust for the Orange Beach fire fighter’s children. Any additional funds can be used by the chapter to provide emergency assistance to cancer patients and their families experiencing financial hardship because of the ordeal.

“I know you hear things like this a lot, but fire fighters really are one big family. It doesn’t matter where we come from. If one of us needs help, we’re going to do everything we can to pitch in, and that’s why we jumped on this so quickly,” Jernigan said.