Shippensburg company stands beside worker with cancer

By SAMANTHA COSSICK
Staff writer

SHIPPENSBURG ? Employees at Town Cleaners and Cumberland Valley Rental are turning their office pink every Friday in support of a co-worker who is undergoing surgery for breast cancer later this month.
Robin Ray has worked with the company about a year. When she found out she had cancer in both her breasts and a lymphoid, she didn?t plan on telling anyone about it.

?I thought I could do it by myself,? Ray said. ?When I told one person, then everybody just kind of felt so sorry and I just felt so inspired when they said ?I?m going to pray for you.??

Once word got out at work, Sue Colangelo, customer service manager, knew she wanted to do something to support Ray so she planned to get her a pink sweatshirt with the company?s logo and a pink ribbon.

When company officials found out, they decided to purchase sweatshirts for all employees, including a brown one with a pink ribbon for the men, Colangelo said. Every Friday, all employees wear their shirts to support Ray.

?Nobody told her we were doing this. She just stopped dead in her tracks and started to cry,? Colangelo said. ?She thought she was going to have to go through this alone, but we?re a family here.?

Ray described it as ?awesome? when she first noticed the pink sweatshirts and then saw everyone, including the drivers, wearing them to support her. ?I just cried. I was so excited that everybody in the whole place was wearing their sweatshirts in honor of me,? she said. ?They are so sweet and supportive.?

In addition to the sweatshirts, employees have been pulling together to help Ray find support groups, find a health center to help financially since she doesn?t have insurance, and help her with her bills, Colangelo said.

?She didn?t know how she was going to get back and forth from her doctor?s appointments, she?s on such a tight budget,? she said. ?Well, we pulled together and got her gas cards. She was just so touched.?

The group is also working to set up a fund for people to donate to in order to help to Ray with the ongoing medical costs and bills when she has to take off work, she said.

Colangelo said she was motivated to help Ray after losing many family members, including her mother, to different forms of cancer.

?I think everybody is touched by someone with cancer. I just want to do whatever I can with anybody to keep their spirits up,? she said. ?I?m just hoping that this story will inspire other people, especially in the work place, to step up even if it?s nothing else but wearing pink.?

Ray, who is in her 40s, will be going in for a double mastectomy on Feb. 28 and said she is grateful to everyone for their prayers and support. ?I don?t understand why God let?s things happen sometimes, but I know something beautiful is going to come from this,? she said.

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Samantha Cossick can be reached at scossick@publicopinionnews.com and 262-4762 or follow her on Twitter at @SCossickPO.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

To find out more information about the fund, contact Sue Colangelo at 532-7622 or 386-8878. Letters of support can be sent to 111 W. King St., Shippensburg, PA 17257.

Source: http://www.shipnewsnow.com/2012/02/shippensburg-company-stands-beside-worker-with-cancer/

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