Second annual poker ride to benefit Bonnie’s Bus

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Motorcyclists will have an opportunity to help fight breast cancer during the second annual Bonnie’s Bus Benefit Poker Ride in Pine Grove on Saturday, Sept. 21. The 120-mile poker ride will benefit Bonnie’s Bus, a digital mammography center on wheels that offers digital mammograms and breast care education to women in West Virginia.

“This year’s ride is called ‘Moving for Mammograms,’ so that people will understand what Bonnie’s Bus is used for,” said Tammy Workman, who spearheaded the first poker ride in appreciation of the mammogram she received on Bonnie’s Bus last year when it visited her community.  

Registration is $10 per person and will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at The Grove Good Time Grille restaurant in Pine Grove, which will serve a buffet breakfast for $5.99.   

Workman, a dual member of the American Legion Auxiliary and the American Legion Riders (ALR), worked with her ALR chapter to map the bike route, which will begin at the restaurant with stops at the American Legion posts in Moundsville, Powhatan Point and Hannibal in Ohio, and New Martinsville, before ending at Shooter’s Saloon in Pine Grove around 5 p.m. There will be a 50-50 drawing and raffles at each of the stops. A silent auction will be held at Shooter’s all day with bidding ending at 6 p.m.

Workman and her friend Tina Rush, who owns Shooter’s and The Grove Good Time Grille, came up with a new idea to benefit this year’s auction.  

“The Grille will host a vendor and craft show called Shop for a Cause Day on Nov. 2, and anyone who wants to set up a table will be asked to donate an item that we can raffle at the auction,” Workman said. “We’re also asking those vendors to donate a smaller item for our ‘Build a Basket for Bonnie’s Bus’ that we will raffle before Christmas.”

Last year’s poker ride to benefit Bonnie’s Bus raised more than $2,000 in spite of it being a cold and rainy day.  

“This year’s event will happen, come rain or shine,” said Workman. “Cancer doesn’t quit, and neither do we.”

Thanks to Workman’s advocacy of Bonnie’s Bus, Debbie Fox, president of the American Legion Auxiliary Department of West Virginia, and her husband Rocky Fox, commander of the Sons of the American Legion Detachment of West Virginia, have decided to support Bonnie’s Bus as their special project for July 2013 to July 2014.

Everyone is welcome to join in the event whether they ride a motorcycle or not. For more information on the ride and how to support the event, call 304-815-2308 or 304-266-8905.

The Bonnie Wells Wilson Mobile Mammography Program is a service of WVU Healthcare and the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.