BUCKHANNON – One of the first events to kick off the 2022 West Virginia Strawberry Festival invites the community to enjoy a scenic ATV ride through Ellamore.

Event organizer Carrie Mills said she and her husband, Alan Mills, have organized the Berry Bandit Poker Run on six occasions. The 2022 poker run will take place April 23, 2022, at the end of Long Run Road. Registration will start at 9 a.m. and continue through 11 a.m. Pre-registration will cost $10 and $5 per passenger, and day of registration will cost $15 and $5 per passenger, and the last ATV will leave at 11 a.m.

Mills explained how poker runs work for any newbies who want to give it a whirl.

“You pick two cards at the beginning and then you ride around, then when you come back, you pick the other three cards and the highest hand wins $100 and the lowest wins $75,” Mills said. “We have a trail marked and you follow that trail, and you can stop whenever you want or do whatever you want — it’s not follow-the-leader or anything – you can just do whatever you want, but we asked for everybody be back by 6 p.m.”

Mills and her husband started organizing the event because they enjoy an ATV ride and it helped expand Strawberry Festival beyond one week.

“Me and my husband like to ride, and we were trying to figure out stuff to do outside of the week of Strawberry Festival, to keep people’s minds on the festival all year round,” Mills said.  “We like to ride, and we knew other people liked the ride, so we started the poker run and we just went with it. It’s been growing and growing, so we do two every year and we love to do it — we hope everybody else likes to do it too.”

The event also gave people something to do during the COVID pandemic.

“People just want to get out and do something,” she said. “People like to ride like their ATVs, and people have been so crammed because of COVID – not so much this year, but we’re just trying to get out and do something,” Mills said.

More information about the poker run can be found on its event page on Facebook.