Bra Couture - The Event

“The mission of Bra Couture KC is to provide life-empowering services to uninsured and underinsured individuals in the greater Kansas City area who have been touched by all cancers.”

Bra Couture KC, also known as BCKC, is an event that takes place in Kansas City at the Signature Flight Support (TWA Museum – Downtown Airport). At 6:00 on April 1^st, 2016, over 1,000 people gathered to raise money and awareness for cancer patients and cancer research. Among these people, there were Chiefs celebrities, surgeons and doctors from the Kansas City area, cancer survivors and those still battling cancer, news casters from KCTV5, university mascots, volunteers, and other patrons from the Kansas City area.

BCKC Event Space

Model walking runway during live fashion show

Inside The Event

At the event, there was an art walk that featured the work-of-art bras made and donated by family & friends of survivors, local artists, celebrities and volunteers, as well as pieces of art that were donated. The main event was the live fashion show. During the live fashion show, there were 19 breast cancer survivors who walked the runway, modeling the top bras to be auctioned off. These bras came with packages that included things like tickets to football, baseball, hockey, and basketball games, in-home wine sampling packages, spa packages, photography packages, and many more. 

Art on display in art walk

My bra on display in art walk

During my time at the University of Central Missouri, I have had the chance to not only make bras for this awesome event but also volunteer! This year I was asked to be the Volunteer Coordinator, which meant I supervised over 100 volunteers and made sure that all of the BCKC committee members had enough volunteers to make everything run smoothly. Having such an important job is a lot of time and work but so worth the end result, and it has its perks too! While I was backstage during the fashion show, I got the chance to meet and talk to Dustin Colquitt, the Kansas City Chiefs Punter! He is a great guy and does so much for Bra Couture KC by taking time out of his busy schedule to help promote the event as well as being there to escort models down the runway and talk during the live fashion show. 

Dustin Colquitt and me backstage

 

Money Raised

Over the last 6 years, BCKC has raised over $750K for uninsured/underinsured cancer patients in Kansas City for the University of Kansas Cancer Center, Truman Medical Center Bra Couture KC Appearance Center, North Kansas City Hospital, Shawnee Mission Medical Center and Cancer Action. This year alone BCKC raised almost $250,000! I am delighted that I have had the opportunity to be a part of BCKC for the last 2 years and I can’t wait to see what the coming years bring!

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for next year’s event, March 17^th, 2017!

-Maggie Hoffelmeyer