Don’t burn it, donate it

Vicki Harrington | Bendigo Weekly | 04-Oct-2012

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FULL SUPPORT: Jacinta McIvor and the team start the collection. Photo: GARRY PATERSON. More photos at www.bendigophotos.com
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Brassiere, booby holders, flopper stoppers, slingshots, over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders, all otherwise known as – the bra.

In the 1970s women were encouraged to burn them for a cause, these days we prefer to donate them.

Impractical, ill fitting, unbalanced, unromantic or just plain unloved, most women have one or more languishing in a drawer somewhere.

Believe it or not, there is a desperate need for these superfluous items.

Since 2005, an Australian and New Zealand-wide community group known as the Uplift! Project with assistance from Rotary Australia World

Community Service, has sent 480,000 bras to women in third world countries, where a bra is often unobtainable or unaffordable.

The second Bendigo Octobra eventis a joint venture of The Professionals Bendigo, Fernwood Fitness Bendigo and supported by Bendigo Bank,

City of Greater Bendigo, Bendigo Health, St John of God, Southern Cross Media and the Bendigo Weekly. It began on October 1.

Last year the challenge to collect enough bras to circle the Queen Elizabeth Oval’s inner fence was easily achieved with 1365 new and used bras donated by generous local women.

As a result, Fernwood Bendigo donated $2000 to the cause and this year the challenge is much bigger.

Each of the above businesses will again act as a collection point for donations with the 2012 target to collect enough bras to circle 1.2 kilometres around Lake Weeroona.

Fernwood and Professionals promise to donate $1000 each if the target is met.

Event organiser, Jacinta McIvor of Professionals Bendigo said: “Everyone has an old bra they no longer wear.

“For poor women living in third-world countries, a bra can make a huge difference to their lives.

“It enables them to live with more comfort and dignity while deterring infections and disease,” she said.

Donations are accepted through to October 30, with the women of Tonga the recipients of all donated bras this year.

Leave your good condition second-hand or new bras in boxes provided at the businesses mentioned above.

Nursing bras, mastectomy bras and size 18+ are the most needed.

On October 31, staff from the supporting businesses, and anyone who would like to volunteer, will meet at the Boardwalk Cafe to join forces (and bras) in the around-the-lake attempt with the ladies from Dragons Abreast adding to the spectacle by rowing volunteers to various points on the lake circuit.

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