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WEST POINT — The Captain Jason Fuller Memorial Riders have set a date for their third annual benefit ride for the Alabama Sheriffs’ Girls Ranch in Tallapoosa County. It us scheduled for Saturday, March 25th. Registration will be taking place at King Auto Corner from 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. EDT that day. The kick stands will go up and the engines will start at noon. 

All motorcycles, cars, trucks, jeeps – anything street legal – can take part in the fun ride.

“Everyone has heard that it takes a village to raise a child. That’s true,” said ride organizer Candy Miles. “It also takes an entire community of people to provide for and interact in a positive way with children. We want them to experience and grow in a loving, safe and healthy environment. There are 20 young girls now living with house parents at the Alabama Sheriffs’ Girls Ranch. We want them to know that they are surrounded by a loving village who wants each one of them to have a good life. Those who take part in our upcoming ride will be part of that village.”

There will be a change in this year’s route and this year’s entertainment. Like last year, the bikes will be getting police escorts as they pull out of King Auto Corner just past the noon hour. Like last year, the ride will head across the Hennon King Bridge along Phillips Road through the Huguley community and turn east onto Highway 50 and continue into Lanett, where the route will turn north at Highway 29, and head through West Point via the State Line Road, past West Point Dam and Lake, all the way to Chambers County Road 278, where it takes a left and heads through Standing Rock, past the Deputy J’Marr Abel cross into Hickory Flat. A short distance away the procession will turn onto US 431. This is where the route changes.

Last year, the bikes turned left and headed through Chambers County to Lee County, where an afternoon of food, drink, auctions and live entertainment took place at the American Legion in Opelika.

This year, the ride will turn north onto 431 and enter Randolph County heading to Barber’s Restaurant near Lake Wedowee. It’s large enough to hold up to 400 people and has two band stages for live entertainment. There will be a raffle, and three bands, Another Round, Whiskey Moon and Double Down, will perform. 

Co-hosting the ride with the Captain Jason Fuller group will be the Alabama Widows’ Sons. With good weather that Saturday, Miles is expecting somewhere between 300 and 400 riders.

The Fuller group will be having their second annual Deputy J’Marr Abel benefit ride later on this summer. It’s to help the family of Deputy Abel, who last June became the first Chambers County Sheriff’s Office deputy to die in the line of duty. He lost control of his vehicle on CR 278 just past the intersection in Hickory Flat. He was assisting the Roanoke Police Department in pursuing a suspect.

In last year’s Deputy Abel inaugural ride, Abel’s fiancee Jasmine, and young son Brycen were in the lead car. In the Valleywide Christmas Parade, they rode in a vehicle with Jasmine and Deputy Abel’s infant daughter Giovanni.

“In Chambers County we take care of our own,” Miles said. “We want to continue supporting the Girls Ranch and Deputy Abel’s family with our benefit rides.”

The Fuller riders recently held a benefit for two Huguley community families who have been impacted by cancer.

“We had a combination hamburger sale and cornhole tournament,” Miles explained. “We want to thank Terry Knowles with the East Alabama Cornhole Association for teaming up with us on this. We raised over $3,200 for the families of Wayne Ragland and Frankie Chappell. We gave each family half to that to help them deal with expenses they are now dealing with. We grew up and went to school with Wayne and Frankie. We wanted to help them.”

At 6 p.m. EDT this week, members of the Fuller group will be outside Coach’s in downtown West Point taking part in a pre-sale for the Girls’ Ranch benefit. They will be selling adorable little teddy bears wearing Captain Jason Fuller t-shirts along with coozies and adult t-shirts with Captain Fuller logos.