The Steamboat Pilot & Today

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The kick-off for the Steamboat Springs Relay For Life on Aug. 8 and 9 was held Thursday evening. Watch »

Steamboat Springs — It was three days after a chemotherapy treatment, and Karen Schulman felt like running.

She had joined a team and raised money for Steamboat’s second annual American Cancer Society Relay For Life. And on a clear August night, wearing a bright purple T-shirt that had “Survivor” stamped across the back, Schulman just couldn’t help being affected by the event’s energy.

“It was absolutely a beautiful night and the sun was low in the sky. So, I was walking around the track with other friends or survivors, and I got about three-quarters around and I was like, ‘See you later,’ and I ran,” she said. “This was the only time in my life that I’m going to be like an Olympian, and the energy was just amazing.”

Schulman was the first to register a team for this year’s Relay For Life, which kicked off Thursday evening in the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel ballroom. Jeff Ross, a motivational speaker with the American Cancer Society who travels to relays nationwide, encouraged sponsors and fundraisers with the event’s new slogan: “Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back.”

“We are sure that we’re putting a dent in cancer and how it’s affected the lives of our loved ones,” Ross said.

With 2007’s fundraising to­­tals, Steamboat had the highest per capita fundraising for its region, and the third highest per capita numbers in the country. The jump in fundraising totals from $59,000 in its first year to $194,000 the next year put Steamboat in second place for explosive growth.

“The people who are giving their time and their energy, it’s just unbelievable. The whole Steamboat community has just come forth,” said event co-chair Linda Jackson, who set this year’s goal at $200,000.

“The goal is to find the cure of this dreaded and terrible disease so it stops taking our loved ones and we can see the day when that research will make that possible. We’re all working as hard as we can to make that happen,” she said.

Schulman, who said she was not familiar with the event before being diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2007, said participants would “gain more than you give by being involved in this.”

“There’s so much to it. The money goes to research, and I wouldn’t be where I am right now if I hadn’t had, and continue to have, the medical treatments that are more advanced,” she said. “A lot of that comes out of the American Cancer Society.”