SUMMIT COUNTY — Nancy Ring, longtime director of Summit County Animal Control, is on leave from her job while fighting breast cancer. Friends and

co-workers have organized a fundraiser for her medical treatment on Sunday from 1-4 p.m

at the Silverthorne Pavilion.

“Nancy Ring has done so many things to help this community,” said Donna Corcel, the administrative clerk and humane educator for Summit County Animal Control. “Any time she saw a need, she'd be part of the solution. … Because of Nancy, many lives have been touched.”

According to Timberline Adult Day Services director Candace Selk Barnes, Ring not only has done great things for animals in the community, but she's also done some incredible things for Timberline as well.

Timberline is providing Ring's fundraiser venue at the Silverthorne Pavilion.

“I made the decision to have a fundraiser for Nancy instead of Timberline,” Barnes said. “She's just got a huge heart, and she's a wonderful lady, so it's the very least we can do.”

Ring's contributions

According to friends and colleagues, Ring has helped both humans and four-legged friends throughout the county during her 30-year tenure at Summit County Animal Control. She's pitched in for nonprofit groups, held positions on committees and boards, and volunteered throughout the county. She's also an active member within Father Dyer Methodist Church — and she loves to sing.

“Within the first six months of Timberline opening in 2001, we had not yet started to receive payments from Medicaid-covered services,” Barnes said. “Nancy stopped in and she looked at me, looked into my eyes and my soul and said ‘what's going on?'”

Barnes told her that Timberline didn't have enough money to pay its expenses, so Ring rounded up funding for both expenses and payroll. She was asked to be

on the board of directors not long after, and she's continued to be

a huge supporter of Timberline and a help in collecting in-kind contributions and funds.

Ring was also one of the original starters of LAPS, the League for Animals and People of the Summit.

“As with most people in the animal-welfare field, Nancy has a great love for animals,” said Lesley Hall, the Summit County Animal Control supervisor in an e-mail. “Through her leadership, she encouraged Summit County citizens to spay and neuter their pets by requiring all pets adopted from the shelter to be sterilized. In 1988 our euthanasia rate was

28 percent. In 2008, the shelter reduced its euthanasia rate to

3 percent, where it remains today.”

Bob Schlegel, the former director of Eagle County Animal Control, met Ring when they started working together in 1990.

“She's the professional that takes in the whole picture,” Schlegel said, also noting that she's as compassionate as possible in dealing with the facts of life of animal control. “She was a strength for me in dealing with the day-to-day of making animal control-type decisions. … She has never been one to toot her own horn, but she's really what I consider the benchmark for a professional public servant.”

Ring's longtime friend Lyn Donovan agreed: “She has been overwhelmingly influential with animal welfare in the state and the county. … Bless her heart, she's stayed and made all these incredible improvements for animals.”

Donovan said Ring will try to be at Sunday's fundraiser.

“I'm overwhelmed by support,” Donovan said. “She has done so much for so many people for so long, people are just coming out from everywhere to support the cause.”

Caitlin Row can be reached at (970) 668-4633 or at crow@summitdaily.com.

Fundraiser details:

When: Sunday, 1-4 p.m. Where: Silverthorne Pavilion

Details: More than $10,000 of silent auction items raised

Cash bar

$10 door donation

Great food by a variety

of folks

Music: Jon Hans, Dave Beard, Randall McKinnon,

Amy Mathesius, Jim Tabbot,

Terry Stinnett and

Mountain Majesty Chorus

Donations: Being accepted

at any Wells Fargo Bank, under Nancy Ring