Lift Truck Dealer Raises Breast Cancer Awareness

FORT DODGE, Iowa—When Bud PeCoy decided he wanted to raise awareness about breast cancer, he did it—literally. In fact, he not only raised awareness, he lifted it more than 80 feet in the air.

PeCoy, of Mid Country Machinery, a construction equipment dealer and rental company headquartered in Fort Dodge, Iowa, along with partners Mark Swedlund, Lucas Peed and Bob Conaway, were looking for a way to give back to the community when they learned that the wife of one of their customers suffered from breast cancer. Seeing this as a worthwhile cause, they decided to create a breast cancer awareness campaign by purchasing two JLG Model 800S telescoping boom lifts to add to their rental fleet.

While purchasing the 80-foot tall machines was nothing new, PeCoy and company had the machines painted pink at the JLG factory and added custom decals to the boom, which promoted the company’s “Reach for the Cure” slogan and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists.

In addition to painting and decaling the booms, Mid Country Machinery also signed an agreement with the Des Moines chapter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure to donate 10% of all income derived from the rental of the machines for the next 54 months, an amount that is expected to total between $25,000 and $30,000 during the life of the agreement.

Due to the large volume of construction activity related to building and enlarging existing hospital facilities throughout Iowa, PeCoy plans to send the 80-foot tall pink JLG boom lifts to those sites as often as possible. In fact, says PeCoy, “If painting our booms pink and adding decals to support the cause can increase awareness of breast cancer, we may even order more pink booms. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of our contribution.”