Night of Boxers and Bras wows crowd

See a photo gallery from Boxers and Bras for a CauseIn a word, wow!That’s how participants and attendees described the 2010 Boxers and Bras for a Cause event, held Oct. 21.The event was the largest yet, attracting more than 100 entries and more than 300 guests to enjoy a night of fashion, fun and awareness for cancer screenings in Siouxland.Each year, the June E. Nylen Cancer Center calls on businesses and groups to design a fashionable pair of boxers or a bra, which are then displayed, voted on and at night’s end, select creations are modeled on the runway. The event is co-sponsored by the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.This year’s designers went hog wild - literally. One entry featured pig faces on each breast and one of the winning entries was created from Harley Davidson parts. Others featured variations on the pigskin - one representing Iowa Hawkeyes and another which featured the Nebraska Cornhuskers.Animals were popular, and included horses, elephants and a toucan. Lights also were popular, with a number of boxers and bras taking some slant on the lighted theme.And all that energy made the runway show the hit of the night.“It was way different than we thought it would be,” said Judy Grimsley, who with her coworkers from Thompson Electric created a bra they titled“Light the way to a cure.” “It was really cool. it was pretty wild on the stage and some of the bras that were modeled were really cool.”“We had a blast making it,” Grimsley said of the creation, which won them the “Wow award.”Karol Holton created a pair of boxers that looked like an elephant, and they were a huge hit on the runway. The boxer title is based on a poem title “An elephant in the room.”The daring pair of underwear were complete with elephant ears on the sides and a trunk in front, and blended in well with a safari theme on the runway.Raising awareness of colon and breast cancer screenings are the reason for the evening, said event chairwoman Virginia Anderson.“I think the fun part about this event is it puts a spin on talking about colonoscopies and mammograms, which everybody finds is important to do. I think it puts a fun spin on it, especially when you are looking at bras and boxers. It makes it fun and can make you laugh.”