Tri-North Builders, a construction firm based in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, held its annual Tequila for Ta-Tas fundraiser on September 23, 2026, drawing hundreds of attendees and pushing total funds raised since 2015 past $200,000, according to WMTV 15 News.

The event benefits the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center's More for Stage IV fund, which supports research into metastatic breast cancer, a stage IV diagnosis in which the disease has spread beyond the breast and is not currently curable. Organizers say the goal is to make the condition survivable. This year's gathering featured a boardwalk theme, carnival games, food and margaritas donated by local sponsors, with all proceeds going to the fund.

Who started Tequila for Ta-Tas and why

Tri-North Builders was founded in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1981 as a general contracting firm and now operates three offices nationwide, according to the company's own materials distributed through PR Newswire and Newswire.com. Tequila for Ta-Tas began in 2015 as a project led by Tri-North staff after a close friend of the company's team was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. The inaugural event raised just over $1,800 for METAvivor, an organization focused specifically on metastatic breast cancer research funding, before the fundraiser shifted its beneficiary to the UW Carbone Cancer Center in subsequent years, per Tri-North's website.

How the total climbed past $200,000

The event's fundraising total has been documented year over year in company announcements and local business press. By its fourth year in 2018, proceeds were going directly to the Carbone Cancer Center's stage IV fund, according to a PR Newswire release at the time. By 2023, the ninth year, cumulative giving had passed $75,000, according to accounts distributed via Newswire.com and AccessWire. That year's event alone raised more than $31,000, more than double the prior year's total and pushing the cumulative figure past $100,000, with roughly 85 guests attending, according to the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce's Madison Biz. In 2025, the eleventh year, the fundraiser brought in $54,357 in a single evening, lifting the running total past $200,000, Tri-North reported on its own site. For 2026, Tequila for Ta-Tas became its own registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, according to a report from Ithaca Book Madison, formalizing a structure that had operated as a Tri-North-hosted charitable event for its first decade.

What organizers said about this year's turnout

Brooke Younggren, a board member for Tequila for Ta-Tas, told WMTV that watching the event's crowd grow each year has been the most rewarding part of running it, adding that cancer touches every walk of life. Tri-North Vice President Anna Stern has said in prior company statements that the fundraiser grew from a small internal effort into what she called a major community undertaking, with proceeds intended to support research for patients regardless of where they live.

What this means

Tequila for Ta-Tas is a corporate-hosted charity night, not a story about a producer, a bottling or a regulatory filing. The tequila in its name refers to margaritas donated by area sponsors rather than any specific brand under scrutiny, and none of the houses in this publication's database are party to the event. It is included here because it is what the wire sent, and because the numbers behind a decade-old grassroots fundraiser are worth setting down accurately.