CHAPEL HILL – On Friday, Chapel Hill will play host to the Pink Heals tour–a national firefighters’ tour to raise money for cancer research–with not one, but two parades on Franklin Street and a display of pink fire trucks at University Mall.

The Pink Heals tour is the project of Guardians of the Ribbon, a six-year-old nonprofit with 34 chapters nationwide and a fleet of 80 pink fire trucks that travel around the country to help fight cancer. This will be its first-ever stop in Chapel Hill.

Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones and UNC Lineberger Center special events coordinator Jennifer Bowman joined Aaron Keck on WCHL’s Thursday Afternoon News to discuss the event.

Listen to their conversation.

The tour begins at 10:00 a.m. as the trucks arrive at the North Carolina Cancer Hospital, greeted by the Chapel Hill FD’s signature Carolina blue trucks and UNC’s Rameses; firefighters will visit with patients at the hospital for the rest of the morning.

At 12:30, the trucks will lead a parade in downtown Franklin Street, westbound from Hillsborough to Graham Streets and back up Rosemary to 140 West, where the pink trucks will be on display for the early afternoon. Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt will deliver remarks at 1:15.

Then at 2:30, the trucks will be on the move again–down the Franklin Street hill to University Mall, where they’ll be on display again until leaving at 5:30. (Donations will be accepted at both 140 West and University Mall.)

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