Two pink-wrapped Burbank Police Department vehicles were unveiled by the staff members of Wrapix Imaging at 202 W Palm Ave. on Friday, Oct. 1, to highlight National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
A BPD Ford Explorer police cruiser and police motorcycle were customized under the leadership of Adam Sumner, owner of Wrapix Imaging, for the unveiling. This annual tradition involves department vehicles being customized with additions of a pink hue to remind the community about the importance of getting regular screenings to detect breast cancer in its early stages. Burbank is one of numerous other municipalities regionally that participate in this national campaign.
BPD Chief of Police Mike Albanese attended the unveiling and spoke of his personal passion for the department’s partnership with Wrapix to raise awareness on the subject of breast cancer.
“It’s very personal for me. My mom died 40 years ago last month from breast cancer,” Albanese said. “So the fact that there’s this national campaign for breast cancer awareness is huge, [and] that we in law enforcement can participate and help with the campaign is important to all of us.”
Burbank City Manager Justin Hess, Burbank Assistant City Manager Judie Wilke, and Burbank City Councilmembers Nick Schultz and Sharon Springer attended the event to offer their support of the project on behalf of the City.
“Breast cancer is something that I think affects nearly every family in Burbank,” Schultz said. “And I hope that when people see the cruiser [or] the bike going around town that they take a moment to just think about asking their mothers, their aunts, their sisters [to] make sure that they’re getting checked regularly, and together I really think we can beat breast cancer.”
Springer echoed Schultz’s encouragement of women undergoing regular medical evaluations to be proactive in the fight against breast cancer.
“I’m grateful for breast cancer awareness because I’ve lost friends to breast cancer, I have friends who successfully battled it, and I’ve known caregivers too,” Springer said. “So this is really good to bring awareness to it, and just to encourage all of us to get our regular mammograms.”
This is the third year the BPD has partnered with Wrapix Imaging, a Burbank company that has been operating in the City for 15 years, for the project. All of the vinyl wrap materials and labor for the vehicles were donated to the department by the company.
“I can’t tell you how generous they’ve been as far as their time, effort, and their creativity,” Albanese said of the Wrapix team.
Sumner and Wrapix Imaging colleagues put their dedicated efforts into making a unique design for the pink-wrapped vehicles this year. The unveiling was met with enthusiastic responses from event attendees, which Sumner says makes the job all the more worthwhile for him and his team.
“The best part is even just getting included and being able to create something for [the City of Burbank] and raise awareness for an amazing cause. So the whole team here really gets behind it,” Sumner said. “Being able to see the reaction of others for a design that we created from scratch, it’s just for us the greatest part…. I think this is one of the best that we’ve done for sure in the last three years. This one tops the charts, and we’re just really excited to unveil it to everybody.”
Team members of Wrapix Imaging who contributed to this project are Alex Rad, Brian Simas, and Teo Avila. Rad, who recently relocated his family from Utah to Burbank to join Wrapix in July, was responsible for the designs of the vehicles. Simas oversaw the quality of each print and prepped vehicles for prints. Avila, a top installer of the Wrapix team, led the BPD motorcycle wrapping and ensured that graphics were properly aligned.
The pink vehicles will be displayed both at the Burbank police station and community events throughout the month of October. In addition, the BPD has joined the Pink Patch Project and will sell pink department patches during October. These funds will go towards City of Hope and cancer research.
As this year’s collaboration between the BPD and Wrapix was again a success, Sumner expressed his feelings of gratitude in having the opportunity to help the Burbank community fight in the battle against breast cancer.
“This is something that hits close to home for my family and for many families of those that I know,” Sumner said. “Our part is to help brand it and kind of show the skills that we have as far as producing a striking graphic, but really, the message behind it is to show people that, hey, there’s a lot of things out there that can affect your family. And we really want to make sure that people are aware of other things that are causing issues in everybody’s day to day. And we’re excited that we can be a part of that.”
To view the Burbank Police Department’s collectible patch, visit the Pink Patch Project site here.
To learn more about Wrapix Imaging, visit their site here.
