It didn’t matter why they had shown up. What really mattered was that they were there.

Close to 300 people participated in the first ever “Stride for Susie,” an event held Sept. 19 that had people running, walking or striding through 5 kilometer or 10 kilometer routes from Saratoga High School to the Village in downtown Saratoga in honor of the late Saratoga City Councilwoman Susie Nagpal.

Nagpal died of lung cancer in May after a seven-month battle with the disease. She was 46.

“Susie accepted that her life was shortened by this disease,” said Jayshree Ullal, Nagpal’s sister. “In life there are givers and takers. And Susie was always a giver. And what she would have liked is that, with this event, we are giving back to the community.”

The event raised about $32,000 for the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, which has the sole purpose of “eradicating lung cancer with our patients, survivors and their families through research, early detection, awareness, education, prevention and treatment.”