When Carolina Gamboa died at age 54 from breast cancer, she left behind a valuable lesson about empathy for her daughter that has turned into an uplifting legacy both mom and child can be proud of.
In memory of her mother, in 2017 Cynthia Gamboa created the CUPS Bra Drive: A Commitment to Uplift with Purpose and Service. As the name implies, the purpose of this nonprofit is to distribute new or gently-used bras — in this case, to women in Northern Illinois homeless and domestic violence shelters, as well as to those in need around the world.
So far, more than 13,870 have been collected. And by the end of the year, that number should be up to over 15,000 – especially after Oct. 3.
That’s when the eighth annual CUPS Bra Drive will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at La Quinta De Los Reyes restaurant in downtown Aurora, which will include an added feature this year to benefit Rush Copley’s Waterford Place Cancer Resource Center.
Making bras such a focal point of community service goes back to Gamboa’s mother, Carolina. who, as a way of dealing with her cancer treatments, would organize garage sales, always encouraging everyone in the family to contribute to the effort.
That included her teenage daughter, who was mortified when her mother began rummaging through her dresser drawers for bras, explaining to Cynthia there were people in other communities who did not have access to new ones.
Cynthia Gamboa found that out herself as boxes of the free undergarments her mother set out would be taken by “immensely grateful” recipients, including a man who sent a box to his sister in Indonesia.
It was a lesson young Cynthia did not forget.
But it was not until Gamboa was a mother herself that, after reading about a Maryland woman’s bra collecting effort, it hit her with “newfound clarity” how she could not only honor the life of her mother but deal with her own grief as she continued to struggle with her mom’s death.
In that first year of the CUPS Bra Drive and with the help of a half-dozen friends, about 600 bras were collected and, in partnership with Free the Girls, a nonprofit devoted to survivors of sex-trafficking, were distributed in Guatemala, Mexico and Indonesia.
New bras were also delivered to Hesed House and Mutual Ground in Aurora, and the group has since then added four shelters: Elgin and DuPage PADS, as well as The Hope and Divine Purpose Transitional Living Home in Joliet and Sarah’s Circle in Chicago.
While it might seem like such a small thing, try telling that to the woman with two daughters who was “wearing a makeshift bra made up of washcloths and a shoe string,” noted Gamboa.
“We we able to find a proper fitting bra for her” and sports bras for the two girls, both of whom were on teams at East Aurora High School.
Gamboa says she’s also heard from residents of Hesed House, including one woman who “went on to find her confidence and secure a job and housing” and another “who had no personal items after losing her home.”
Gamboa, who along with her three young children delivered 1,200 bras in May, is especially excited about a new feature at this year’s drive called “Bra Bids” that will truly “honor my mom’s breast cancer journey.”
This auction of sorts allows dollars to garner votes for the favorite of a half-dozen artistically or meaningfully designed bras, with 100% of the proceeds going toward mastectomy, prosthesis and compression bras for Waterford Place Cancer Resource Center in Aurora.
Check out the entries on the CUPS Bra Drive Facebook page, where voting is currently going on. I guarantee you will be impressed with how beautiful and creative they are, including a design by Gamboa herself in her mother’s memory, and one made by breast cancer survivor Yvette Garcia.
Friday’s downtown Aurora event is open to the public. New or gently-used bras can also be sent to CUPS Bra Drive, P.O. Box 34 in Yorkville. Other locations accepting donations year-round include state Rep. Barbara Hernandez’s office, 1 E. Benton St., Suite 101, Aurora; HealthSource Chiropractic, 1695 N. Farnsworth Ave., Aurora; and Bare Moxie Bra and Swim Boutique, 115 W. State St., Geneva.
Gamboa has certainly come a long way from that embarrassed teen.
“I still sometimes cry about it,” she says of her mother’s passing. “But her legacy is being kept alive through this.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com