Chief Johnnie Adams Kilts It For Breast Cancer
Jos Cashon
Corsair/Daily Press Staff writer
The mood is jovial and the crowd is large and lively at Santa Monica College Police
Department’s Taco Tuesday breast cancer fundraiser, but one element stands out above
all the festivities: Chief of Police Johnnie Adams standing proudly in a kilt.
Just how exactly did the director of the school’s boys in blue come to be standing in
such peculiar clothing amongst pink tables littered with pink-foiled chocolate coins
and pink bubblegum dum-dums? Well, according to Adams it all started with a joke.
“There’s a company called 5.11 Tactical… about 5 years ago [they] did an April Fool’s
joke. They did a video with this kilt, and they said this is the 5.11 tactical kilt… they
kind of made it as a parody,” Adams explained with a chuckle. “Well... they sold 4,000
that first year.”
“Since then, they've been making the kilts every year and we have a foundation that
gives money to victims of Hurricane Harvey and things like that and this last year they
were able to raise $33,000 for our foundation. So I was joking to them, since we're
doing this breast cancer awareness as well as raising money for cancer research for the
City of Hope, I said ‘I'll wear a kilt if you can raise $750.”
The idea caught fire, according to Adams they were able to raise an incredible $850 for
the so-called “Chief Adams Kilt Fund” in a single day, including a personal donation
from SMC President Kathryn Jeffery herself. In one fell swoop, the Chief’s kilt donning
fate was sealed.
“I promised people I'd go to my meetings this way. I've already been to Emeritus and
gotten some weird looks… then I'll be at the board meeting this way too… so it'll be an
interesting day,” said Adams, reflecting on the reactions to his attire.
“I did have a
couple cat calls but it just goes with the territory until they know why you're doing it.
But I think that if you bring a little humor to this tragic disease — you know, my father
died of cancer and so I'm very passionate about it — I think that if there's any way that
we can raise more money than we did last year then I'd be really happy… it's important
that it's okay to make fun of ourselves every once in a while if it's for a good cause,
and I think it's something that will help with bringing our community together.”
Plus, Adams jokes, the pockets even fit an AR-15 magazine. “You know, if it has that
much potential to raise this much money then, heck, I'd wear it more. I just have to
make sure I have a change of clothes in case I really have to do things.”
Thanks to today's Taco Tuesday fundraiser, the department has raised an additional
$2,500 toward their goal to beat last year’s total of $6,300, passing the threshold at
which campus-favorite Sergeant Jere Romano agreed to join Chief Adams in a kilt at a
later date.
The fundraiser is part of a larger initiative called the Pink Patch Project, which raised
more than $300,000 nationwide last year for breast cancer awareness and research.
“It's a great cause, it's growing,” said Adams.
“We're hoping to make it a nationwide
cause so that all the police departments for the month of October do something like
that and hopefully one day we'll cure this disease.”
Visit www.pinkpatchproject.com for more information.
editor@www.smdp.com
This story was produced as part of partnership between the Santa Monica College Corsair newspaper and the Daily Press.
