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While participants were gearing up for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Cleveland last Saturday, the Celtic Club was stringing up bras across the Cuyahoga River in downtown Kent.

“We’re accomplishing what we set out to do, which is to raise an awareness of breast cancer,” said Celtic Club member Jim Collver. “The message of hope is what I hope everybody is thinking as they go by.”

According to the American Cancer Society, there will be an estimated 230,000 new cases of breast cancer in women from the U.S. this year. Of those women, an estimated 40,000 of them will die from the disease. An estimated 540 of those fatalities will be in Ohio.

The bras are part of a summer-long donation drive that benefits local women’s shelters in Portage and Summit counties. The donations in Kent are going to the Safer Futures women’s shelter.

“A lot of times when women leave a domestic violence situation they leave with the clothes on their back and no money,” said Jillian Alexander, senior specialist from Safer Futures. “Women there literally, it’s like they don’t have anything.”

According to the Ohio Attorney General website, in Portage County alone, there were 258 victims of domestic violence in 2010.

Alexander said she believes over the course of a year, each woman who visits the shelter will receive at least two bras.

The Celtic Club has received over 1,000 bra donations so far. The bra donation drive will end Sept 22.

People can still donate new and gently used bras at donation sites in Kent. The donation sites include: The Arctic Squirrel, The Pufferbelly, Main Street Tavern, Kent Area Chamber of Commerce, Kent Mayor’s Office, Kent Student Center and Recreation Center, Kent State Student Center, McKay Bricker Framing and Whitehall Terrace.

Contact Megan Moore at [email protected].