DEL.ICIO.USDelta flight attendant goes pink to fight cancer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Alice Ramsey struts down the concourse at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, part fashion model, part Flo from Mel’s Diner.
Her hair is artfully piled atop her head, her makeup perfect, and her voice is as sweet and Southern as molasses on a biscuit.
JASON GETZ / jgetz@ajc .com
Alice Ramsey (left) and fellow flight attendant Leza Bennett serve pink lemonade to passengers on a Delta flight.
JASON GETZ / jgetz@ajc .com
Ramsey, a breast cancer survivor, raised $3,000 from passengers last October.
JASON GETZ / jgetz@ajc .com
Veteran Delta flight attendant Alice Ramsey first wore her pink dress last year; this year other Delta staffers have joined her.
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“How you doin’ darlin’?” the Senoia native sings out to a U.S. Army soldier in camo fatigues. “Thank you for what you do!”
With her high-wattage grin and sassy spunk, Ramsey would probably turn heads anyway. Throughout October, she’ll be downright impossible to miss. The veteran Delta flight attendant, like 274 of her colleagues, will wear pink during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They’ll sell pink lemonade aboard Delta flights and collect donations for the Breast Cancer Research Fund.
“My challenge to everyone in this dress is to make $1,000,” said Ramsey, who’s been flying with Delta for 22 years. Delta also will donate 250 SkyMiles to the fund through Oct. 31 every time a customer books a flight or checks in online at delta.com; SkyMiles members receive an additional 250 bonus miles.
Ramsey was diagnosed in 2005 with breast cancer at age 52. That April, a mammogram detected nothing unusual. Three months later, something didn’t look quite right when she stepped out of the shower, and tests confirmed it was a tumor. Following surgery, she went through chemotherapy for four months. She almost welcomed the ordeal of losing her hair.
“I think God gives you that to worry about because there’s so much going through your brain,” said Ramsey, who wore a different wig to every chemo appointment.
As she prepared to return to work after 18 months away, a seamstress friend made her a special pink dress, modeled after the red ones Delta flight attendants wear. Corporate officials gave her permission to wear the dress last October, and with scant effort she raised $3,000 for breast cancer research from the passengers she charmed. This year, Delta gave flight attendants the option of purchasing a pink dress for $70. All 275 sold out in 12 hours. (Male flight attendants had the option of purchasing pink ties or pocket squares).
“Listening to and acting on our employees’ suggestions is a part the inclusive culture Delta people have created and maintained throughout our history,” Delta CEO Richard Anderson said in an e-mail. “Recommendations from employees usually result in things like an improved customer experience or a new community effort.”
Flight attendant Leza Bennett, who’s been flying with Delta for 15 years, put it this way: “She’s a pink phenomenon. It’s an absolute honor for me to be part of this. It makes a statement.”
Both women served pink lemonade to boarding passengers the other day to get the word out about the October promotion. Ramsey had a smile and quick word for everyone in the rushing crowd, even the churlish boor who fumed at anyone who would listen that his seat lacked a foot-rest.
“Pink it up, baby!” Ramsey said with a wink.
Ramsey and her husband Chris, an assistant Fayette County High School football coach, live in Brooks and attend St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Fayetteville.
One of six children, Ramsey was a cheerleader at East Coweta High School and a Phi Mu at the University of Georgia (official sorority flower: the pink carnation). Her father is also a breast cancer survivor and a sister, diagnosed last year, is finishing radiation.
“It may be your dollar or it may be someone else’s,” said Ramsey, serious for just a minute, “but we’ve got to find a cure.”
