The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — For the inaugural Eggs 2 Ovaries fundraiser, event organizer Traci Clark doesn’t want to focus on any one of the 22 local and regional artists who contributed their designs.

Instead, she wants to draw attention and support to education, awareness and detection of a disease that often goes undetected.

To Clark, whose grandmother died of ovarian cancer, the cause is personal. So when the founders of the Norma Livingston Ovarian Cancer Foundation — who own second homes in Routt County — decided to do a fundraiser in Steamboat Springs, Clark’s Finial Inc. leaped at the chance.

“When we started planning the event and were trying to figure out what would be unique to it, we came up with the title Eggs 2 Ovaries, and we decided what better way to do some type of an egg art,” Clark said.

From there, 22 local and regional artists submitted hand-designed ostrich eggs for silent auction. They’ll be on display for a week at K. Saari Gallery before going up for bidding at Three Peaks Grill on May 17. Admission to the gallery preview is free; admission to the silent auction is $100. All proceeds go to ovarian cancer education, awareness and detection in Routt County.

Clark said the event allows artists to gain exposure, give back to the community and draw attention to a medical issue.

“More than anything, I think most of the artists would tell you that it’s all about giving back to the community,” Clark said. “For them, I think they feel like we do — that the community has been very good to us, and there comes a time when you have to open up and give back.”

Clark and K. Saari Gallery owner Kimberly Saari said detection and awareness of the disease is a cause they’re interested in promoting by making the event annual.

“I just think it’s such a great cause to make people aware, especially women — the way the symptoms are so undetectable, you just may not know,” Saari said. “So I really believe in the cause, being a woman in her 30s.”

All money raised with the silent auction will go toward education and awareness, as well as for support to women in Routt County living with ovarian cancer, Clark said.