Motorcycle riders rolled through Central Utah for the Fifth Annual Deer Creek Coal Miners Poker Run recently.
Each year the group selects a cause or a person to ride for. This year the funds raised would benefit the Miners Memorial which will be dedicated in Carbon County on Sept. 7. All funds raised over the past three years for the memorial will place a monument in Carbon and then in Emery County to honor those who have lost their lives in coal mines.
The ride was founded by the late Steve Thornton of Orangeville and Wade Hansen.
The event began in September 2011 as a benefit ride for Kaylee Edgehouse Van Wagoner, the daughter of Joe and Kim Edgehouse, whose body rejected a kidney and later had to be put on expensive long-term dialysis.
The second run benefited Jacee Day, who has been living with a rare and incurable autoimmune disorder called Wegener’s Granulomatosis, a chronic systemic vasculitis affecting small and medium-sized blood vessels. The third run went to benefit Steve Thornton who was battling cancer at the time.
The riders this day gathered at the Energy West Mining building in Huntington and were given their first card to build their poker hand.
Miners memorial run raises money for monument
"A large group of riders from Carbon and Emery counties and surrounding areas meet in Huntington."