On Jan. 28, Brighton Ski Resort turned pink as it hosted a Boarding for Breast Cancer (B4BC) Love Your Peaks event. This was the third stop on this winter series. The B4BC’s Love Your Peaks event is a fundraising campaign to support breast cancer awareness at ski resorts throughout the country. B4BC’s mission is to promote a healthy lifestyle to prevent breast cancer and to raise funds to help educate and support the survivorship programs.

This year marked the return of B4BC to Utah at Brighton Ski Resort. Maggie Gonzalez, events and outreach manager for B4BC said, “We are thrilled to be back in Utah for the first time since 2018 and on an amazing powder day no less. We were able to fundraise over $4K for our education, prevention, and survivorship programs.”

A registration fee of $25 was collected to participate in the Love Your Peaks event and each person was given a B4BC beanie. There were fun activities including a Pink Poker Run, tribute ride, raffles, an auction, live music, juice sampling and an award ceremony at the end. The event was full of activities for the entire family.

The Pink Poker Run was a great way for participants to explore the mountain.

The event was set up so that guests would visit five checkpoints around the ski resort. Each contestant picked up pink playing cards. Both skiers and snowboarders decked out in their best pink attire were given extra playing cards at the checkpoints.

The winners were selected by having the best poker hand and were presented with a prize from Yeti at the award ceremony. The poker winners were Megan Lord, Claire Kruger and Michael Nelson.

There was an afternoon tribute run for the person that raised the most donations. “Our top fundraiser was Megan Lord. Lord participated in honor of her mother who recently passed from breast cancer, along with her cousins Claire Kruger and Michael Nelson,” Gonzalez said.

A raffle and auction took place and some cool merchandise was provided by Yeti, Dakine, 686, The North Face, Pura Vida Sun Bum and Burton. 

Music played while free sampling of Suja Organic juice was given away. 

“We are incredibly grateful to Brighton Resort along with Jared Winkler for hosting us and look forward to 2024,” Gonzalez said.

The assistance from volunteers Ashlee Adams, Cameron Hyde and Kristen Cotter was appreciated and was essential with making this event a success.

The next stop for B4BC’s Love Your Peaks is at Waterville Valley Resort and then to Loon Mountain both located in New Hampshire. A total of 13 Love Your Peaks fundraising events are planned for the 2023 winter season. They have raised $35K so far and will probably reach and surpass the goal of $50K from these events.

B4BC is an organization that began more than 25 years ago. The organization was inspired by a young snowboarder by the name of Monica Steward. Steward was part of the snowboarding community and was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 26. Steward encouraged her fellow snowboarders to use their platform to raise awareness about breast cancer with young women. Steward lost her battle with cancer two years after her diagnosis. 

Steward’s friend Lisa Hudson along with Dawn Kish, Kathleen Gasparini and many more encouraged leaders in the industry from boarding, clothing and media companies to support this cause on behalf of Steward. Together, in April 1996, they created the first B4BC snowboarding and music festival.

The Love Your Peaks fundraising event centers around the passion for boarding, being active and breast cancer education for early detection of the disease.

Events are sponsored by B4BC throughout the year in snowboarding, skating, wakeboarding, surfing and climbing.

Regular breast cancer screening is important since many women with breast cancer have no symptoms. Education about monthly self-exams and what to look for can help with early detection. There is a free B4BC app that can be downloaded to remind a person to do a monthly breast self-exam (BSE). 

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women and only lung cancer kills more women each year. The chance that a woman will die from breast cancer is about 1 in 39.

The ACS stated that breast cancer death rates have been decreasing steadily since 1989. The decrease in death rates is believed to be the result of finding breast cancer earlier through screening and increased awareness, as well as better treatments. However, the decline has slowed slightly in recent years.

At this time there are more than 3.8 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. This includes women still being treated and those who have completed treatment. Statistics were found on the American Cancer Society’s website at cancer.org. 

More information about breast cancer awareness and getting involved with B4BC fundraising events can be found on their website at B4BC.org. B4BC is a nonprofit foundation that accepts donations at any time.