The end of the year is a time of reflection, community, and the spirit of giving. Coincidentally, I’ve also been using the last gasps of the slow season to process and sort our latest batch of bra donations. As a result, the Bra Bank initiative- and the people it serves- have been at the forefront of my mind.

The idea for the Athens Area Bra Bank existed before Grail even opened, although the service model has evolved and improved over time. In late 2018, I visited the Greensboro, NC boutique of my professional mentor, Erica Windle, and saw that she had a donation bin in her shop for gently used bras to be delivered to a local women’s shelter. I thought immediately of Project Safe back home and how the residents could likely benefit from a resource providing no-cost undergarments. One of the first things I did after Grail opened its doors was to reach out to Project Safe and see if they were interested in working together. They were, so I put out a collection bin and started encouraging clients to leave their gently-used bras with us.

Initially, the plan was just to drop the bras with Project Safe periodically. However, later in 2019, I met Bree Mize Derber, who would go on to become our community consultant and team-member-in-spirit. She has assisted Project Safe for years with events and fundraising, and she suggested that Grail actually host a bra fitting event for the shelter residents. We did, and it was a blast! I realized immediately that we needed to make the fittings a permanent service. Free bras may be helpful to folks in need, but free bras plus the same bra fitting expertise that we offer to Grail customers is so much better. We’re really able to assist the residents with figuring out which bra sizes and styles will work best for them, which makes the whole Bra Bank resource a lot more helpful. Plus, I think it’s a much more fun exercise for all of us.

In the years since, we’ve had a steady stream of bra donations from our generous clients, community members, and even occasionally from our vendor brands. In 2022, I realized that we were accumulating gently-used bras faster than we were distributing them to the Project Safe residents… “Good problems,” as they say. The Grail team started looking for other local non-profit organizations serving a clientele that might benefit from no-cost undergarments. Athens is home to a huge number of wonderful nonprofits supporting our community members in greatest need. We received an enthusiastic response from several local inpatient addiction treatment programs and recovery centers, with new organizations reaching out all the time. We’ve collaborated with Advantage Women’s Services as well as their youth services program. We’re working on extending the Bra Bank as a resource to the Athens Area Homeless Shelter. We’ll continue to volunteer our time and expertise as long as it takes to get these donations into the hands of those who can truly use them.

Anyone can help! If you have unneeded bras lying around, we would love to give them a new home. Declutter your lingerie drawer and bring us the bras that you no longer want – gently used of any kind or greatly loved with hook-and-eye clasps. Gently-used bras are obviously the most ideal for the Bra Bank. (I absolutely do perform minor repairs on damaged bras in certain situations, though… especially bras in very unusual sizes.) Greatly loved bras will be taken apart and their clasps sent on to the UGA Vet School, where they’ll act as sutures on turtles with broken shells. Depending on whether the ACC CHaRM center has a buyer for certain material components, we can sometimes send other bra parts off for textile recycling as well.

We never send anyone away empty-handed, even if we have to donate bras out of Grail inventory. This situation usually arises when a Bra Bank recipient falls outside of the big box store range of bra sizes or has other specific needs. All donations are appreciated, but the following are the highest priority because our supply is always low:

*** Cup sizes over a DDD, all bands

* Bra bands 44 and above

* Bra bands 30 and below

* Nursing bras

* Wire-free anything, which may be the most comfortable option for residents who are pregnant or recovering from injuries.

Donations can be dropped at the shop anytime during our regular business hours. We can also make other arrangements for your convenience, such as shipment or pick-up. There is no deadline; we believe that this is an important service, and it’s one that we’re happy to be able to provide.