Folks had a good fit at first Bra-ha-ha

There were bras dressed in pennies, treasure chests, jewelry and even baseballs. Some lit up while others played tunes.

But it was a bra wearing pink camouflage that earned the $500 grand prize at The Breast Center's Bra-ha-ha gala Thursday night at the Chesapeake Regional Medical Center.

"Hunt for a Cure" earned the top prize because of its clever combination of hunting season and October as Breast Cancer Awareness month. The winning bra was submitted by Devery Harmon, a Greenbrier resident who works in the hospital's Home Care Services.

" I started thinking about how much planning, time and effort my husband and I put into our hunting and thought that if everyone put that much energy into finding a cure, we would be able to remove all the things that get in the way and prevent us from seeing the cure," Harmon said. "Let's remove the camo, turn the scope and put cancer in the cross hairs and take it down."

Bronchitis kept her home from the Bra-ha-ha, so her friend Angela Loverin collected her prizes for her, which included a signed book by Geralyn Lucas, the author of "Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy" and was the keynote speaker at the inaugural event.

"I'm always up for a challenge," Harmon said. "I like to do bead work, so I put beads on almost anything. It was a challenge on how I could do that with the bra."

The top submitter honor went to Dr. Catherine Hayward, the medical director of the Breast Center. Afraid no one would enter any bras, Hayward submitted six entries of her own.

"I knew this might be a bit of a gamble," Hayword said of the event. "I was afraid we'd have only 30 bras. And then they kept coming."

There were 146 entries in all. The silent auction of the bras raised at least $2,200 for breast-cancer research.

Lucas had the crowd howling with laughter as she talked about what she went through after being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 27. She wore lipstick to her mastectomy because the glamour of the lipstick seemed far removed from the cold reality of the scalpel. She also wanted her surgeon and the nurses to see her more than "right breast removal" on the operating table.

"I wanted them to know I had danced onstage with Elvis Costello, that I am always late," Lucas said.

While in recovery, she had seven recovery nurses all asking what brand her lipstick was.

"Some people have highways or universities named after them, I have a lipstick," she quipped.

Lucas praised the hospital for its proactive approach to developing a "one-stop" treatment center, and she applauded the hospital for providing free yearly mammograms to all of its female employees.

"This is such a world-class treatment center," Lucas said. "I'm so proud to be here. There is technology here that New York City doesn't have."

Marion Moulton, 46, of Virginia Beach, and Joy Julian, 35, of Great Bridge, laughed and cried during Lucas' speech. They became friends while getting chemotherapy. Julian's best friend, Jennifer Pepper, died April 30 of breast cancer at age 33.

"Chemo can be such a black hole," Moulton said. "Attending the Bra-ha-ha gave me a sense of hope, that for me, life goes on and I have to be able to laugh."

Devon Hubbard Sorlie, 222-5202; Devon.Sorlie@pilotonline.com