Saturday, October 18 was the 2nd annual Bras For A Cause event. It was put on by the Soroptimist International of Greater North Kitsap and held at the Kitsap Conference Center in Bremerton. Monica’s Waterfront Bakery & Cafe was one of 8 ‘Silver’ level sponsors. We had tickets for the whole gang, plus a couple to spare, and a bra for the auction and we were ready to have some fun!
We had a table for 8 and there are 6 of us gals at the cafe (we excluded the guys on this one) and so I decided to try to donate even more to the cause by raffling off our last 2 tickets. Tickets cost $50 so I raffled ours off for $10 a ticket, or 3 for $25, which I thought was a great deal. I was surprised at how few people participated and while the odds were great for those who bought tickets, we did not raise nearly as much money for the charity as I thought we would.
We had the drawing on Thursday and two of our favorite regulars won the tickets: Chelsea (Kitsap Garage Door) and Lizzy (Pzazz Day Spa). They enhanced our fun evening and even though we didn’t raise a ton of money, we are SO happy that we did that since our company was so fine! We had an extra large table so on top of all that fun we got to visit with Laura Nesby (Mor Mor/Perfect Circle Consignment) and Jenna Mathews (Perfect Circle Consignment)
I try to support causes that our whole team is behind and this one is particularly dear to us. Leslie lost her mom to breast cancer many years ago and my grandmother had breast cancer as well. This was an easy event to support! When I decided that we would sponsor Bras for a Cause, I knew I wanted us to do a cookie bra. I had some ideas about what I wanted that to look like, and how I thought it could work, and I expressed those to Renee. I got the mannequin form on Ebay so she knew what she had to work with, so we talked about it and I gave her as much input as I could, and then she went at it.
She practiced with our signature shortbread cookie dough and that did not work out well at all. I hoped it would, though I suspected it may be too heavy, but it ended up not working in general. I knew our ricciarelli (Italian almond cookies that are gluten free) cookies are very pliable when they come out of the oven, and there is a short window of time to work with them before they harden up. It worked out beautifully! She really hit the look I was going for and with only 4 hours of practice! It took her about 3 hours and a little help to put it together, and she piped on butter cream frosting to embellish the bra with ‘lace’ and the signature breast cancer awareness pink bow. We dressed up the mannequin with one of my grandmother’s necklaces and a jewel for her naval. We named the bra ‘Sweet Support’ and Leslie helped carry it to the conference center.
We got the bra all set up and due to a glitch we were not listed in the program, so the only way for folks to know we had a bra there was to walk around and see it. We were noticing that people were crowding around our bra, trying to see all around it, to figure out if it was really cookies or what. It was the talk of the room and we had so much fun walking around and hearing people comment on it! There were more than 90 bras there, and everyone could bid on them. Ours was included in the silent auction, and there were a few that were up for live auction as well. We wandered around and took pictures, had some champagne, and checked out all the other bras. Some of us were bidding on items and then the food came out.
They served hors d’oeuvres and they were really very good. The coconut shrimp is something that I rarely enjoy as much as I think I am going to, though theirs was the best I have ever had. Crisp, not too sweet, perfectly cooked and not mealy, and they were going fast! Satay chicken skewers; crackers and bits of bread with yummy toppings such as tapenades, goat cheese, tomatoes, meats, and apples; and there were cheeses, meats, cupcakes and other bites. Since it was dinnertime we were all very hungry, the lines were long and the food was going fast, but we got in there and held our own.
Everyone there got to vote on their three favorite bras by nominating them in the categories of ‘Funniest’, ‘Most Beautiful’ and ‘Most Unique’. With more than 90 bras it was quite a feat to choose your top three favorites! We were honored and so proud to receive the title of ‘Most Unique’ bra! How cool is that??? The woman who won our bra, Donna, was really looking forward to eating it with her husband this weekend. It was all such an ‘uplifting’ experience!
Unfortunately I cannot figure out how to get pictures on this blog. There are some pics on our web site athttp://www.waterfrontbakery.com/events.htm#bra so you can see the bra. I apologize for being a tech-not, I thought I could figure it out!
I am already thinking of ideas for next year’s bra that will be as good, if not better than this year’s. Do you have any ideas you want to share with me?
