Bras for the Cause: How a Hunt County Tradition Became a Local Legend
First in The Local Letter’s October Local Legends series
Some Hunt County traditions are hard to explain to someone who has never experienced them, and Bras for the Cause might be near the top of that list.
There are decorated bras. Some are beautiful and sentimental, while others are hilarious or so enormous they require a little logistical planning just to get them downtown. Add in costumes, pink wigs, voting cards, food, laughter and BRAbies, the event’s Barbie-inspired bra awards, and you begin to get an idea of what downtown Greenville looks like one night every October.
But after 18 years, Bras for the Cause has become much bigger than decorated bras and a really good party. The event has raised more than $2 million for cancer-related services and equipment right here in Hunt County.
When I sat down with Pud for the first story in The Local Letter’s October Local Legends series, I thought I was interviewing one of the women behind it. Pud had a slightly different idea about who the Local Legend was.
It wasn’t her, and it wasn’t any one member of the group affectionately known as the Big Boobs. As we talked about the people who started it, the volunteers who keep it going, the businesses that create bras and the thousands of people who have voted over the years, it became pretty clear that Bras for the Cause itself is the Local Legend.
And Hunt County is the reason it became one.
It Started With a Bracelet and an Idea
The story begins with Janeen Cunningham, owner of the Calico Cat and the woman Pud calls the “Founding Boob.” Janeen carried Brighton jewelry, and one year the company encouraged retailers participating in its Power of Pink bracelet promotion to host an event of their own. Janeen remembered hearing women talking about decorated bras they had seen elsewhere, and that little idea was enough to get things started.
At the time, Pud was doing marketing for Janeen, and together with a group of women, they began figuring out what a Hunt County version might look like. Janeen knew what she didn’t want. She didn’t want an auction or a fashion show. She wanted something everyone could attend, something fun and free, and most importantly, something where the money raised would stay local.
That first year, Janeen convinced about 50 people to create bras. Visitors voted for their favorites for $1 per vote, and the event raised a little over $3,000 for FitSteps for Life, a program serving cancer patients. The second year, they raised around $10,000.
Then Hunt County did what Hunt County sometimes does when it decides something matters. It took the idea and ran with it.
Today, Bras for the Cause has raised more than $2 million, but Pud is quick to redirect the credit whenever the conversation turns toward the people organizing it.
“It’s not us,” she told me. “It’s the community.”
And the community really does have an open invitation to be part of it. Anyone can create and submit a bra, and there is no fee to enter. Many local businesses turn their entries into events of their own, rallying employees and customers around a bra and raising money long before the doors open on event night.
Families vote. Organizations host fundraisers. People buy shirts, attend golf tournaments, host bake sales and concerts, dress in ridiculous costumes and show up downtown ready to spend dollar after dollar voting for their favorites.
Pud wants people to be able to walk into Hunt Regional, see a piece of equipment Bras for the Cause helped purchase and think, I helped buy that. Maybe their business made a bra, maybe they bought voting cards or maybe they showed up downtown wearing a ridiculous costume. Whatever their part was, they helped make it happen.
When Hunt County Runs With an Idea
Today the team behind Bras for the Cause includes 10 Big Boobs and one Man Boob, all with different jobs in keeping the event running. One of the youngest, Ivey Koch, first attended Bras for the Cause when she was about five years old. She made her first bra at six and knew early on that someday she wanted to become a Big Boob herself.
Now she is one.
It’s a small piece of the story, but it says a lot about an event that has been around long enough for children who grew up attending it to become part of the team putting it on.
The event itself has grown just as organically. The costumes weren’t necessarily part of the original plan. They took off after one group showed up in pink tutus and wigs and everyone else apparently realized, Wait. We can do that?
Over the years, the creativity has grown to include just about anything people can dream up. One of Pud’s favorites was a life-size Velociraptor wearing a gold sequin bra, pink tutu, wig and eyelashes. It stood somewhere around seven feet tall and nine feet long.
It was hilarious and, in Pud’s words, “hell to move.”
That willingness to have fun is built right into the event. One of the official rules even declares that “shameless campaigning is encouraged.”
The awards have their own quirky history, too. Janeen didn’t want money raised for cancer patients being spent on trophies, so Sue Shanks came up with another solution. She took a Barbie doll, spray-painted her pink, covered her in glitter and mounted her in a small dog food can filled with plaster.
The BRAbie was born.
Local FFA students now help make the BRAbies, continuing a tradition involving Barbie dolls, spray paint, glitter, empty pet food cans and, according to Pud, payment in brownies.
Winning one also comes with some serious local bragging rights. I always smile when I walk into a Hunt County business and see BRAbies lining a shelf or sitting proudly on display. They’re more than quirky little trophies. Each one represents a bra, a year of friendly competition and a business that helped raise money for cancer care right here at home.
Behind All That Glitter
It’s easy to spend a lot of time talking about the funny parts of Bras for the Cause because there are so many of them. But underneath all the glitter is the reason this event has lasted 18 years.
The money stays in Hunt County and supports cancer-related services and equipment through Hunt Regional Healthcare. One program Pud is especially proud of is Janice’s Closet, which provides bras, prostheses and wigs to local women going through cancer treatment. Janeen was adamant that the bras offered to women should be beautiful, not simply practical, because feeling like yourself matters, too.
Bras for the Cause has also helped purchase diagnostic and treatment equipment for Hunt Regional over the years. This year’s projects continue that work with funding aimed at both breast cancer screening and cancer treatment.
And sometimes the bras themselves tell the story.
Some are created simply to make people laugh. Others are made in memory of a mother, sister or friend, or in honor of someone currently fighting cancer. The Big Boobs often know those stories before the public ever sees the finished bras, which is one reason they don’t judge the regular award categories themselves.
There is one award they do choose: Boobs’ Choice.
That one often goes to the bra or the story behind it that touched the group personally. It’s a small part of the evening, but it is also a reminder that behind all the jokes, glitter and costumes are real people and real reasons for being there.
A Wonderful Time
On event night, the community gets its turn to decide which bras rise to the top. Every dollar is a vote, and some businesses and organizations have already raised hundreds or even thousands of dollars for their entries before Thursday night begins.
At the end of the evening, the votes are counted and the top fundraisers are announced. Then comes one of Pud’s favorite traditions.
Janeen gets the microphone and flips the numbers, revealing the final fundraising total.
“Janeen is still the heart of Bras for the Cause,” Pud told me.
Pud would rather stand toward the back and watch the people who made the bras, raised the money, dressed up, volunteered and showed up have their moment.
Toward the end of our conversation, I asked her what Hunt County would lose if Bras for the Cause disappeared tomorrow, besides the money it raises.
Her answer was immediate.
“A wonderful time.”
She told me about a friend who once flew in from St. Louis to attend. Afterward, her friend said her cheeks were tired because she had spent the entire night smiling and laughing.
Pud’s grandchildren have grown up voting, too. This year, the older girls are excited about teaching their younger cousin how it’s done.
Maybe that’s how you know something has moved beyond being an annual fundraiser and become a community tradition. Kids grow up with it. Businesses plan for it. Stories from one year get retold the next, and somewhere along the way, a quirky idea involving decorated bras becomes part of the story of a community.
Come See This Local Legend for Yourself
If you’ve lived in Hunt County for years and have somehow never made it to Bras for the Cause, this may be the year to change that. And if you’re new here, Thursday night might be one of the best introductions you can get to the community you’ve joined.
And you don’t have to wait until Thursday evening to join in. Each year Bras for the Cause announces a new theme and releases that year’s shirt, leading up to another local tradition: Bras for the Cause Shirt Day. Wear yours Thursday, snap a picture and tag Bras for the Cause. By the time the event begins that evening, you’ll likely have already seen plenty of pink around Hunt County.
Bras for the Cause is Thursday, October 8, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in downtown Greenville, Texas. The event is free to attend, with bras displayed in businesses and other locations throughout downtown. Make your way from stop to stop, find your favorites and cast your votes. Local businesses get involved in the evening too, with several donating a portion of their proceeds back to Bras for the Cause, and food trucks will be set up downtown. So come hungry. Grabbing dinner, visiting a local business and making a night of it can all be part of supporting the cause.
Bring a few dollars, or more than a few, and walk the displays. Admire the creativity, laugh at the ridiculous ones and stop for the meaningful ones. Then pick your favorites and vote, because every $1 vote becomes part of the money Bras for the Cause puts back into cancer care right here in Hunt County.
Stick around for the awards ceremony at the Greenville Municipal Auditorium and watch the final number come in. You don’t have to make a bra or wear a pink wig to be part of this Local Legend. You just have to show up.
Eighteen years ago, Janeen Cunningham wanted to throw a fun, free event, raise a little money and keep it local. Nobody knew what it would become.
More than $2 million later, Bras for the Cause isn’t simply an event Hunt County attends. It’s something Hunt County built.
And perhaps that’s exactly what makes it a Local Legend.
Know a Local Legend?
Bras for the Cause is just the beginning of our Local Legends series. All month long, I’ll be sharing stories about the people, traditions and community connections that have helped make Hunt County what it is. You can follow them on Facebook.
And I know there are more stories out there.
If there’s someone you think deserves to be remembered, celebrated or simply better known, I’d love to hear about them. Send me their name and tell me what makes them a Local Legend. Your suggestion just might lead me to a story I haven’t found yet.
Until next Tuesday,
April
The Local Letter