The Exceed Flooring showroom in Crystal Lake isn’t the place someone would usually go to find women’s unmentionables, but in October, the business is all about the bras.
Owners Haig and Hawley Haleblian, and their team of interior design professionals, are collecting the undergarments as part of the Hang Your Hopes on a Cure campaign in celebration of breast cancer awareness month.
“How many women go through their closets and dressers, pull out an old bra and say, ‘When was the last time I wore this thing?’” Hawley Haleblian said. “This is a great reason to give back and raise breast cancer awareness.”
Hundreds of gently worn bras have been collected thus far, with donations being accepted at business, located at 5186 Northwest Highway, where participants will receive a 10-percent discount on their flooring purchase.
Lingerie boutique La Bellissima, located at 10 N. Williams St., has also joined the bra brigade, collecting donations at their downtown Crystal Lake location and donating items themselves. Donors are automatically entered to win a Mary Jo lingerie set.
All bra donations will then be laundered and sent to local women’s social service agencies. Financial donations are also being accepted, with all proceeds going toward the Centegra Gavers Breast Center.
“If it’s successful, this will be an annual thing,” Haig Haleblian said. “We thought this would be a fun way to give back.”
The bra tree greets motorists on Northwest Highway. (Lawerence Synett/Tribune)
To get the word out about the campaign, motorists driving through Crystal Lake may notice something a bit unorthodox while passing by the facility on Northwest Highway — the bra tree.
The tree, located in the business’s parking lot, is draped in pink and has close to 100 bras strung from it. Haig Haleblian came up with the idea for the tree after learning about shoe trees —roadside attractions created by people throwing shoes on them.
“It’s definitely drawn some interest,” Hawley Haleblian said.
Promoting awareness comes easy to the Haleblian’s and their two daughters, one of whom is a cancer survivor.
Twenty-one-year-old Kate Haleblian was diagnosed with lymphoma when she was 18. The DePaul student is now a two-year cancer survivor.
“This goes hand-in-hand with what our daughter had to go through,” Haig Haleblian said. “We want to have some fun with it and do some good for the community.”
For information, or to donate, visit www.exceedflooring.com.
