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Daisy Run in Vail funds a unique cause

Special to the Daily

VAIL — When Heather Surridge’s sister Kim passed away in 2011, Kim had four young kids ages 4 to 16 and had been sick for two and a half years.

In that time, Surridge witnessed something besides her sister’s death which changed her life.

“Her community came together, surrounded her and helped her with everything,” Surridge said. “ From housekeeping to making school lunches; they did a car pool for her, they did her grocery shopping, everything. … It was amazing to witness all these people coming together.”



Surridge herself is in the housekeeping business and was especially impressed by how organized Kim’s community was in providing these services for her. She took particular notice of Kim’s housekeeping.

“She had a family come in,” Surridge said. “A woman who had six kids of her own came every single week on the same day and cleaned her house. It was a friend of hers who committed to doing it, and she did it throughout her sickness and continued for almost a year after she passed away.”

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Surridge says things like housekeeping are easily forgotten when you’re sick and remembers how thankful Kim was to have her friend’s weekly service.

“That was amazing for me to see,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wow, if we could do that for other people, it would be so helpful.’”

Flash forward to today — Surridge has started a nonprofit dedicated to providing housekeeping services to young families who have a parent battling cancer. It’s a natural fit, as the services Surridge is able to provide through her 16 years in the business allow her to maximize the funds her foundation receives.

“We’re able to offer the cleaning at cost,” she said. “So we’re stretching the dollar that we’re raising through the nonprofit a lot further.”

On Saturday, Surridge is holding the second annual Kim Kopp Daisy Run at Donovan Park, a family event fundraiser for the Kim Kopp Charitable Foundation. It’s a 5-kilometer walk/run with a kids 1-kilometer obstacle course, followed by a barbecue, raffle and silent auction.

“People who can’t make the walk can come to the after party and raffle — Weston snowboards donated their Beetle Kill snowboard, and we have probably 50 other items that are going to be at the silent auction,” Surridge said.

Surridge said she wants the day to be a family day at the park, which Kim would have loved.

“It will be totally old school,” she said. “We’ll have sno cones, potato sack races, tug o’ wars, tunnels that the kids have to army crawl through, that kind of stuff.”

Registration starts at 8:30 a.m. and the walk/run starts at 9.


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