Saturday morning, Josh Kvam, 31, took out his snowmobile and brought it to the ice-covered East Side Lake.

A new part of Austin’s Paint the Town Pink events, this year saw snowmobilers bring their sleds onto the ice on East Side Lake for the first Snowmobile Speed Run to raise money to fight cancer.

“I think it’s great,” he said. “It’s a good thing for the town to raise the money and have some fun, and bring the kids out because they love snowmobiles.”

Kvam was excited to bring his 2014 Arctic El Tigre 6000 snowmobile down since there has been a lack of snow to use the machine on this year.

“Just for fun,” Kvam said. “They’re putting it on and I figured I’d bring it down, test her out a little bit. No snow around here, so, got to get a little ride time in.”

Steve Clark, president of the Spamtown Snowdrifters, organized the event and was happy they were able to host it after some moderate temperatures last week. The event raised about $260 to go to The Hormel Institute and there were about 30 snowmobilers that took part.

“The anticipating, with the thaw and the freeze and the snow and the no snow, has been kind of hectic not knowing what we’re going to get,” Clark said. “I would like to see some more snow, so people can actually ride their snowmobiles down here.”

Jason Jones brought his sons to the event to watch them race against the clock. He was a bit nervous for son Caleb Vandeweer, 14, who hadn’t driven the 1999 Polaris 550 Supersport Aircool before.

“I was kind of a little scared to ride this one,” Caleb said.

However, he was excited to ride the snowmobile since there hasn’t been much snow this winter. This was the first time he had ridden on the ice.

“I just figured it’d be nice to, a good chance to ride the snowmobile one more time before the winter’s done,” Caleb said.

His step-brother, Jonathan Jones, 16, was also excited to ride across the lake, but this was not his first time riding on the fast ice.

“I love speed, that’s for sure,” Jonathan said.

Jason said the main reason he was letting his sons ride in the race was to support cancer research, as he had a 12-year-old daughter pass away in 2007 from brain cancer. He was glad Paint the Town Pink organizers added this event to help raise more money.

“I just hope soon they can find some way of curing it, getting it covered, because the simple fact is, it isn’t fun,” Jason said. “Cancer’s not a nice thing for anybody.”

Hormel Institute Director of Development and Public Relations Gail Dennison was also happy about the added event, which reached another demographic of people.

“We love seeing different groups of people join in,” she said. “And so this is a new event this year, and it just brings another part of our community together for this cause that effects all of us. And of course we’re so thankful, and we’re so grateful.”

The event was separated into three classes: studded track, rubber track and vintage snowmobiles. Clark hopes to build off the event in future years. He thanked Trimble’s Cycle Center, Motor Supply and Napa Parts Store for sponsoring the prizes for the winners of the event.

“What I love most about Paint the Town Pink is that it brings the community together,” Dennison added.