Skinny Cow Teams Up With Athena's For A Perfect Fit

When Jennifer Jolicoeur, founder, president and owner of , found out about Skinny Cow's Perfect Cup tour, she knew the event would be a "perfect fit" for the Athena's Cup. With the help of Facebook and a "call to arms" for Jolicoeur's national crew of "goddesses," the companies have teamed up to offer women free bras and fittings, while collecting old bras at a fun event in Providence next Saturday.

Jolicoeur launched the Athena's Cup in October of 2009, a national campaign to raise breast cancer awareness by collecting more than 169,000 bras. Athena's hopes to beat the Guiness Book World Record while raising money for the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation of Rhode Island. With more than 60,000 bras and counting, the adult novelty shop based in Woonsocket has used the gimmick to empower and educate women about the disease.

"It's not just about the bras," said Sharon Epstein from Athena's. "We also get to teach women about taking charge of their health."

Meanwhile, at Nestle headquarters, the makers of the low calorie ice cream Skinny Cow began planning for the Perfect Cup tour, a six city event including ice cream samples, free bras and other giveaways aimed at lowering a sad statistic: eight out of ten women wear the wrong bra size.

"Wearing the wrong bra size daily is downright uncomfortable," said Jolicouer, a Woonsocket native who has built her company from the ground up. Athena's now has more than 2,000 active "goddesses" (adult novelty dealers) in 39 states.

"In the right bra, women look better and feel more confident," adds Epstein.

Jolicouer had one problem- Skinny Cow's online contest to nominate venues for the Perfect Cup tour only included big cities like New York and Los Angeles. Providence, the largest city in Athena's home state, wasn't even listed as an option. Even worse, by the time Jolicouer got wind of the contest, only three days remained for submitting nominations.

Not one for defeat, Jolicouer called in the cavalry, using social media and her cross-country network to promote Providence as a venue.

"It was the very end of the month when one of the goddesses emailed me," said Jolicouer. "I sent a blast email to all of my customers and all of my goddesses."

Rhode Island's capital, initially a write-in in the online contest, jumped to the most requested city in the three short days, more than doubling the second place nomination. Providence will join Chicago, New York, Houston, Los Angeles and Boston as a venue for the Perfect Cup.

The company will use the opportunity to collect gently used and new bras along with a five dollar donation at the event's ‘decoration station.’ Athena's has collected 62,860 bras as of last count, but Epstein said they recently received a large number of donations that have yet to be counted.

"I think it's great what Skinny Cow is doing," said Epstein. "And it's a good fit with Athena's. You give away an old bra and you get a new bra that fits you better."

Contributors often write messages for friends and loved ones on the donated bras, which Athena's hopes to string together at an event in October of this year.

"We're hoping for an October event, but we're going to keep collecting bras and spreading the word about breast cancer as long as we need to," said Epstein. The current world record holder is an Australian organization that created a mile-long string of bras, held together only by their hooks. 

The Skinny Cow Perfect Cup event will be held at the Providence Convention Center (One Sabin St., Providence) on Saturday, July 16, 2011 from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. Participants must sign up for a fitting time at skinnycow.com/promotions/perfectcups.

"I hope all of our friends in Woonsocket will come out to support this event," said Jolicouer. "You can't lose... you get free ice cream, a free bra and a free fitting, and you get the chance to donate your bra to a great cause."