Hundreds of bras wrap Central Texas Courthouse to show breast cancer impact - KWTX

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WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A group of women decided to think outside of the box by going under the blouse for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“When it comes to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, people generally write their check, they get their pink t-shirt, and then they cross it off their list,” said Nicole Hughes.

“We wanted something, when people walked in here and saw the bras hanging off the ceiling, they would be like ‘what the heck is going on?’ And they did.”

Hughes is the owner of Dessert by MommaCakes in Fairfield on the Freestone County Courthouse square.

She said several of her employees are breast cancer survivors and one of them had a mother who died of the disease.

“It’s made a tremendous impact on our team,” said Hughes.

As a result, she’s been supporting breast cancer causes for years by doing things like selling cupcakes in October where the proceeds go to the cause.

This year, however, she had a vision to bring breast cancer support to a whole new level.

“This sounds like a lunatic--wrapping the courthouse in bras,” said Hughes.

Hughes says she wanted to collect bras to wrap around the Freestone County Courthouse (and later donate) to represent people touched by breast cancer.

“When our community comes together, they come together in a big way,” said Hughes. “I just said ‘I gotta go big, I gotta go big.’”

She went big, alright.

For the entire month of October, her bakery was collecting bras, plus, people could make a donation to buy a pink ribbon to pin onto the bras to represent someone who survived or died from breast cancer.

“I wanted people to look at these bras and see these represented women’s lives: either lives that were paused for treatment, or lives that were sadly lost,” said Hughes.

They called it “Boos and Boo-bies”, and they had bras hanging in the hallway of the bakery when people walked in to make a statement.

”It was pretty cool to see them hanging,” said Kelly Teer.

Teer, a retired Fairfield ISD teacher who is the manager of MommaCakes, is a breast cancer survivor.

“I was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in September of 2016, so I’m almost five years out cancer free,” said Teer.

Cindy Neal worked with Teer at Fairfield Elementary School for almost 20 years before joining her at MommaCakes.

Neal survived a tough battle with breast cancer after being diagnosed in 2009.

“They were both found through mammograms, and so that’s what we preach,” said Neal.

Collecting the bras gave Neal and Teer a chance to share their stories and connect with others who came into the bakery.

As a result, they found a couple of women who couldn’t afford mammograms.

“We heard women’s stories about how they did not get a mammogram because they did not have health coverage, so we were able to give away two mammograms to women who did not have that coverage,” said Hughes.

One mammogram was donated by a citizen, another was donated by Freestone County Medical Center.

In addition to the mammograms, through Boos and Boob-ies, well over 200 bras were collected and $1,000 was raised.

On Halloween, the final day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the community came out to help clasp the bras together and string them around the courthouse--roughly 600 feet of bras.

Hughes’ vision to show the impact of breast cancer was realized.

“We wrapped around the courthouse a time and a half,” said Hughes. “It just came together, I’m proud of the effort.”

The bras are being donated to the Austin Street Center’s Sisterhood Program in Dallas which will use them to help cloth displaced women undergoing job training.

The monetary donations raised from the ribbons will be going to the Freestone County Cancer Support group.

Copyright 2021 KWTX. All rights reserved.

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