Veteran asks people to wear red to support the troops
CRANBERRY TWP — For several days each week, whenever the sun is shining, township resident and U.S. Army veteran William Piocquidio treks out to the corner of Route 19 and Rowan Road, across from the GetGo gas station. He sets up his table, car and bright red T-shirts, and waits.
His singular goal is to spread awareness for the “Red Fridays” movement: an effort to get people to wear red shirts on Fridays to honor veterans and those serving in the military.
RED is an acronym that stands for Remember Everyone Deployed.
“There's no politics involved in this,” Piocquidio said. “This is about patriotism and loving your country, and you have to support our troops.”
Piocquidio just turned 82 years old and has pursued a number of careers, including advertising, security and his time in the Army from 1957 to 1962. He moved to Cranberry from Beaver County about a year and a half ago after his wife died.
“I'm 82, I'm in the fourth quarter, and the clock is running, and I don't look for any Hail Mary plays,” he said. “I could be here today talking to you, and not here tomorrow, but fortunately I am in good health.”
His efforts with the Red Fridays movement began in Beaver County, where he was able to get several highway billboards put up asking passers-by to wear red.
Piocquidio switched to smaller signs that would fit in a front yard for ease of assembly and construction. He hopes to find local business owners or homeowners in the Cranberry area who will put the signs in their yards, and said that he will absorb the cost of construction himself.
To him, the Red Fridays movement is about spreading awareness, not making money.
When he sells red T-shirts on the corner, the cost of the shirts goes right back into making more shirts, and he does not make a profit. He has also done giveaways with local organizations, such as the Cranberry YMCA, to give away Red Fridays shirts.
“I've never taken a penny,” he said. “I've had people begging me to take donations on the corner, but I will not handle other people's money. I'm a one-man band — no profit, take no money, none whatsoever. I put it back into the T-shirts. That's more messages that I can get out there.”
He has been in communication with local business owners and officials in Cranberry Township and Butler, he said, but hasn't yet succeeded in finding a location or landowner able to put up one of the signs.
Availability of carpenters to do the construction is one problem, he said, and lack of familiarity or enthusiasm for the Red Fridays movement is another. While the process has been frustrating, he said, he still wants to persist, but is worried about running out of steam.
“This drives me. I don't stop,” he said. “I'm at that point right now, if I can't get people to participate in something in spite of all the giveaways I do and have done, I don't understand.”
His hope is to put at least one sign up to get his message out.
“I think if more people would see this, then I would like to put more than one here in Cranberry because we have some great locations here,” he said.
