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Grand Rapids breast cancer non-profit still has 'a lot of fight left' after burglary

The founder of Pinkn' Patch is hoping the community will help his organization after thousands of dollars worth of equipment were stolen from the warehouse.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The parking lot of Grand Rapids Pallet Liquidations on Division Avenue was filled with a little splash of pink on Tuesday evening as the business welcomed Pinkn' Patch, a relatively new non-profit organization, to use its parking lot to sell pink pumpkins.

"Pinkn' Patch is about bringing relief to families and patients that have been diagnosed with breast cancer and going through treatment," said Scott Packer, who founded the organization after several of his friends and family members were diagnosed.

"Our goal is to make everyday hardships a little easier - like house cleaning services and laundry and transportation to treatment and food and stuff like that, that kind of falls through the cracks."

Breast cancer survivor Hillary Vanderlaan knows how much services like those that Pinkn' Patch provides can mean to patients. She was diagnosed in February 2022. She went through 20 weeks of chemotherapy before have a lopsided mastectomy and having her lymph nodes removed. During that time, she was exhausted.

"I was really lucky. I had a lot of support from my family and friends through my journey, but there are a lot of people that just don't have that," she said.

But now Pinkn' Patch has hit a setback in its mission to provide services for people like Hillary.

"We were broken into yesterday and our sprayers were stolen. We had four sprayers from Graco. They were amazing, beautiful commercial sprayers. They're about just under $1,000 apiece by the time you get the the tips and all that stuff, and they were on loan to us," Scott said.

"We also had some top-of-the-line paint brushes. We had like 300 of them that were donated to us. Those were stolen."

The Grand Rapids Police Department confirmed to 13 ON YOUR SIDE that a report had been filed about the break-in at the warehouse.

"It just kind of hurts that they took those," Scott said.

Credit: 13 ON YOUR SIDE/Matt Gard
Pinkn' Patch's warehouse, located at 635 Godfrey Avenue SW in Grand Rapids.

The organization had also planned to hold an event at Sullivan Field on the west side of Grand Rapids this past weekend, but the weather moved the event to the Chicago Beef Joint on Ottawa Avenue NW. The organization expected 2,000 to 4,000 people to show up at the outdoor event, but in a smaller indoor space they were only able to welcome a few hundred people.

Despite the setbacks, Scott remains focused on his mission, and he won't let someone's bad deed take away from that.

"I've got a lot of fight left in me, so it'll happen," he said as his eyes welled up with tears.

"I want to thank everybody. My volunteers are just amazing, everybody that's been involved, the stories and the people that we've touched. So we'll be here. We'll be here next year."

If you want to help Pinkn' Patch, they'll be hosting an event this coming Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. in the parking lot of their warehouse, located at 635 Godfrey Avenue SW. Pink pumpkins will be available for $5, $10, or $15. Orange pumpkins will be given away in exchange for any donation.

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