Dancers Up Front For Charity They Washed Cars Topless, But Donations Were Rejected

What if they threw a fund-raiser and nobody wanted the cash?

That’s what happened to some exotic dancers who raised money for breast cancer research by washing cars topless.

When it came time to donate $3,500, the women from Club Juana Cocktail Lounge were rejected by a prominent cancer research center and the American Cancer Society’s local chapter.

“That makes me mad,” dancer Stephanie Morris said. “Dancers get a bad name because of what we do. When we try to do something for the community, they don’t accept it.”

A mammography center finally accepted the money, but snubbed dancers remained angry.

“Our hearts are in the right place,” Morris said.

The April 24 fund-raiser was staged by a local radio station. Ten dancers raised the money during a three-hour period, said Charlie Standish, a promoter for Club Juana.

Patrons pulled their cars into enclosed canvas tents at a local nightclub and the topless dancers went to work with soap and water.

The money was raised for the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando, a nationally recognized cancer treatment facility, where officials defended the decision to refuse the money after learning how it was raised.

“We had calls from patients and former patients who were very concerned and were upset that something like this would be done in the interest of cancer research,” spokesman Joe Brown said. “It doesn’t fit our ethical standards.”

The dancers and the radio station next turned to the Orlando Metro Unit of the American Cancer Society. But their money was rejected there, too.

Alice Allington, the chapter’s vice president, said the American Cancer Society has a policy of rejecting money from groups it deems questionable.

The dancers at last found a taker in the Women’s Center for Radiology, a private center run by two doctors, where the money will go to provide mammograms to uninsured women who can’t afford the $65 tests.

Twenty-three women were screened last week using a mobile mammography unit parked in the radio station’s parking lot.

“We knew there was some controversy,” said Vicki Crews, the center’s director. “However, we were mainly concerned about patients who don’t have funds to get a mammogram.”