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The 52nd running of the Original Road and Trail Race takes place on Friday, July 17, at 6 p.m. downtown on the eve of the Dowagiac Summer Festival.

The Summer Festival takes place from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. on Saturday, July 18, featuring live music, a kids waterpark, food vendors, a beer garden, artisan booths and sidewalk sales.

July 17 “will be Festival Friday,” said Manager of Development and Executive Director of the SMC Foundation Emily Schrock, who also serves on the Greater Dowagiac Chamber board. “That features sidewalk sales, restaurant specials and businesses hosting fun activities and promotions.”

Steve’s Run packet pickup and late registration take place from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday on campus at the Student Activity Center off Dailey Road and on race day from 4 to 5:30 at the train station, 200 Depot Drive.

“Last year we had 326,” Schrock said, “which, of course, draws even more family and friends to watch the event.  We’re hoping for perfect weather that day.”

“What makes Steve's Run so special is the way it connects people for a greater purpose. Every participant, volunteer and sponsor plays a role in supporting cancer research and helping students pursue their educational goals. We're honored to be part of an event that continues to strengthen our community year after year,” said Kelly Williams, Regional Manager, Honor Credit Union.

“We’re excited to have Honor Credit Union as our presenting sponsor this year, as well as welcoming back other sponsors, like Cairn Stone Adventure Tours, the bib sponsor,” Schrock said. “We’re grateful for sponsors like Bud Distributing, Imperial Furniture, Baker’s Rhapsody, Slope and Bakeman Barbers.”

“We’re thankful for our donors and participants who help us to continue to put on this community event to raise money for both cancer research and the David and Steven Briegel Memorial Scholarship,” Schrock said. “We’re grateful to continue the tradition.”

In 2025, the “Fire-Up Five” of Tom Ellspermann, Steve Bunn, John Roscoe, Joe Ofsansky and Greg Lozeau, who helped SMC capture three straight national cross country championships from 1973-75, ambled along near the back of the pack — for them a new vantage point and pace.

Steve’s sister, Carrie, will continue to facilitate Fire Up signs to memorialize runners’ loved ones.

“We invited area cross country teams to come out,” Schrock said. “The city provides us resources, such as the fire and police departments, for which we’re very grateful.”

Known as Steve’s Run since 1992, the event has raised more than $300,000 since 2012 for cancer research and scholarships.

Steve’s Run left downtown in 2015 for Southwestern Michigan College’s campus, where it began in front of the David C. Briegel Building, named for SMC’s fifth president from 1981-98.

David’s and Camille’s son, Steven Briegel, was born July 21, 1967, and died March 1, 1990, at age 22 after a 5 ½-year battle with cancer. He graduated fifth in Union High School’s Class of 1986 and played basketball, golf and in band for the Chieftains.

He graduated with an associate degree in mathematics with honors from SMC in 1988 and was a junior in the Ferris State University program at SMC at the time of his death.

He was a member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society.

After Steve’s death, SMC’s annual Road and Trail Race became Steve’s Run, dedicated to all who have fought or are still fighting cancer, with proceeds split between Mayo Clinic cancer research and the Briegel scholarship. President Briegel died Jan. 13, 2021.

“I wanted to do something to honor Steve,” founder Ron Gunn said. “We had a run around Edwardsburg’s Eagle Lake in his honor” on July 31, 1991. On Aug. 1, 1992, Steve’s Run embraced Dowagiac.

As SMC dean of sports education, Gunn organized races throughout the 1970s-’80s through Roadrunner Track Club. “The first few years it was called the Road and Trail Race, the Bud Lite Run and the Nike-Fair Store Run,” he said.

A magazine named Steve’s Run one of the 10 best vacation runs in the country for its unique combination of highways, the Elks golf course and the college’s rugged trails with hay bales and log obstacles.

Monday Night Running Club, founded in 1979, activated countless sedentary community members.

After a virtual event in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the race moved back into town in 2021.

Sign up for Steve’s Run today at runsignup.com/stevesrun.