YOU OUGHT TO KNOW: SHANEY JO DARDEN

Abreast of awareness and a putting a unique twist on a timeless cause

If a term like “breast cancer awareness” brings up thoughts of pink ribbons, special-edition pink makeup cases and Pepto-Bismol, allow us to introduce you to Shaney Jo Darden. Through her nonprofit foundation Keep A Breast, Darden has created a memorable and unique charity built on…well, breasts.

“When our cofounder’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, we wanted to do something to support the cause, but we weren’t sure what,” Darden recalls. “That’s when we realized there wasn’t really anything out there for us. We’d been doing art exhibitions and fashion shows for years, so we decided to go with what we were good at. We started doing plaster casts of breasts, sent them out to artists to be painted, raised money by selling them, and it really took off.”

That’s an understatement. Since 2002, the Keep A Breast Foundation has raised over $150,000 and partnered with outlets such as Roxy and the Warped Tour to put on awareness events around the world, in such places as France, Australia, Hawai‘i and more. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that some pretty big names have molded their mammaries for the cause. Pink, Lisa Andersen, Miami Ink’s Kat Von D and burlesque performer Dita Von Teese are just a sampling of the high-caliber names who have lent their breasts to the cause.

Though Darden has a full-time job as a denim designer, Keep A Breast is so important to her that she puts in enough weekly hours to kill a lesser man. Working hard to cultivate relationships that cater to the demographic she’s looking to reach, Darden is picky about who she partners with.

“We don’t work with just anyone out there–it takes a long time to build relationships,” she notes, which is why even the girls who volunteer to hand out information to people have either known people who have had breast cancer, or know people who were affected by it, in order to facilitate opening up a dialogue…which is another thing that helps Keep A Breast stand out from the pack.

“We’re all about education and awareness, minding the facts, and teaching young people across the world about doing self breast exams–we’re all about detecting cancer early and taking care of it so it doesn’t have to be a major thing,” Darden notes. “We’re about living a healthy lifestyle and knowing your body. We want to make it cool to be an activist and be aware of what’s going on.”

Now in their fifth year of fund-raising, Darden plans to keep expanding Keep A Breast’s awareness efforts, while finding more support and funding to keep the foundation rocking. If her passion is any indication, Keep A Breast will be making a difference for years to come.

Says Darden, “It’s gratifying to help save lives and help people who are going through a hard time…I just feel so blessed that I can use my talents and what I know how to do to help people. l have so many days where I’m like, ‘I can’t do this…’ but I can’t not do it–I’m meant to keep doing this.”

words by carly milne

To check out more, click on: keep-a-breast.org.