BETHEL – Motorcyclists are expected to participate in a fund-raiser on Saturday, July 31, that memorializes a Bethel-area biker.

Dubbed the “Skunk Run,” the event includes a 136-mile scenic drive starting at 10 a.m. from the American Legion Hall in Locke Mills, a pig roast from 3 to 5 p.m., and a dance from 8 p.m. to midnight to the music of Suspects, a classic rock band.

The cost for the second annual Skunk Run is a $10 donation per event – motorcycle ride, pig roast and band/dance – or $30, which includes a free T-shirt.

Two hundred motorcyclists participated in last year’s event, raising $12,000 for the Sandon A. Morgan Scholarship Fund at Telstar Regional High School.

Morgan, a 1997 Telstar High School graduate, was killed in a motorcycle wreck on April 21, 2003, in Buckfield, said his father-in-law, Mark Thomas of Oxford.

The event is named after Morgan. “His nickname was skunk’ ever since he was a little kid,” Thomas said Tuesday.

Thomas’ daughter, Melissa – Morgan’s widow – came up with the name.

That first year, the “very community-oriented event” started off as a motorcycle run, but along the way, Thomas said, it snowballed into a pig roast and dance.

“It’s amazing how much community support we have. I’ve never seen people, for an event, come together like this. Last year, we sold close to 1,000 T-shirts,” he said.

On June 1, Morgan’s family and friends awarded the event’s first two-year full scholarship to Central Maine Community College in Auburn, to Benjamin James Bailey of Andover.

“The kid wanted to go to school to become a carpenter, which he couldn’t do until he got the scholarship,” Thomas said.

Bailey is to attend the college this fall, majoring in building construction technology.

The Skunk Run is open to riders on “any kind of motorcycle,” he said.

People may register on the Internet at www.bikerskunk.com. For more information, call 743-8254.