Registration for the 37th annual Steve’s Run Saturday is running 100 ahead of the best previous year, Race Director Ron Gunn told Dowagiac Rotary Club Thursday.

He is assisted by Southwestern Michigan College graduate Whitney Podell, now attending Bethel College, and his daughter, Emily, in selling $5 Fire Up signs similar to the luminaries used by Relay for Life to honor cancer survivors or victims and to support cancer research.

“They inspire and motivate the runners when they’re on the trail,” Podell said.

“Over 700 registered online,” Gunn said. “We have another 200 registered who walked in the office. We have registration (tonight) at the Amtrak station and whatever we get Saturday morning. We hope to see 1,400 or 1,500.”

SMC President Dr. David Mathews “said this is the biggest collaborative effort between the community and the college, and I really do think it is,” Gunn said. “We have over 250 volunteers.”

Podell and Gunn gave program presenter Kim Gallagher of Southwest Michigan Planning Commission a 2011 Steve’s Run T-shirt.

Charlie Gratz, whose youngest daughter graduated with Steve Briegel, said that as this is the 25th anniversary of the Dowagiac Union High School Class of 1986, it is trying to line up at least 25 classmates to run or walk.