Bras span Strip to raise awareness

Monday, July 29, 2002 | 10:55 a.m.

Information

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation offers free mammograms to women who can't afford the test and gives classes on how to do self-exams. It also offers information on battling breast cancer. Call 822-2324.

More than 12,000 bras stretched down the Strip from the Mandalay Bay to the Stratosphere for 15 minutes Sunday morning, as hundreds of community members rallied to raise awareness and money to fight breast cancer.

The "Bras Across the Strip" community event, benefitting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, played on Las Vegas' Sin City image while at the same time proving that the town is much more than just slot machines and showgirls -- it's a community of people who care, organizers said.

"I wanted to do an event that Las Vegas could get behind and show the world that we could make a difference," said Ken Carson, event organizer and program director for sponsoring radio stations 96.3 KKLZ and Star 102.7. "I wanted to show the country that our city has a heart."

The "Bras Across the Strip" event received an outpouring of support from thousands of locals, not only because of how much the community cares, but because of how deeply breast cancer has affected people from across the Las Vegas Valley, Carson said.

"Whether you are a man or a woman, there is somebody in your life that has been affected by breast cancer -- either a friend or a mother or a sister," Carson, whose mother was a breast cancer surviver, said to the crowd of people gathered outside Bally's for the ceremonial hooking of the last bras.

The unique, Las Vegas-style event, complete with Bally's Showgirls dressed in sequined bikinis and bright yellow feather boas, drew the attention of tourists walking the Strip as cars honked and people gawked at the variety of bras lining South Las Vegas Boulevard. A few tourists even joined in to help the 360 volunteers hold up the more than three-mile chain of bras that broke only for intersection and property entrances.

The radio stations raised more than $16,000 through the event for the Las Vegas affiliate of the Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, which works to eradicate breast cancer by advancing research, education, screening and treatment.

Thousands of locals donated bras through Goodwill of Southern Nevada Inc. and other community sponsors in support of the event. Organizers hope the event will promote early detection of breast cancer by motivating women to get regular mammograms and do self-exams.

"The Susan G. Komen Foundation has done an extraordinary job of educating women, empowering women to be ever-vigilant in taking control of our own health needs and diagnosing breast cancer early and getting treatment," said Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, who has been personally affected by breast cancer as both of her grandmothers, her mother and most recently her sister were diagnosed with it.

The Komen Foundation received several bra donations from men and women in honor of loved ones who either won or lost a battle with breast cancer, Jackie Brown, Komen Foundation health educator and breast cancer survivor, said.

More than two dozen celebrities also got involved by donating autographed bras that the two radio stations auctioned off. The rest of the new bras will be donated to Safe Nest, and used bras will be recycled through Goodwill or sent to San Francisco artist Emily Duffy, who is sculpting a giant bra ball to represent female body issues.