The ninth annual Lamar Hunton Memorial Ride to benefit Georgia Sheriffs’ Youth Homes is set for Saturday.

Registration for the ride will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Paulding County Senior/Community Center on Industrial Way North in Dallas and the ride will leave at 10 a.m., lasting for about one hour and 45 minutes. It will end back at the senior center where there will be lunch, door prizes, raffles for a Glock pistol and getaway package.

There are currently five youth homes, which all urgently need funding, said a ride organizer.

“It’s a fun-filled day for motorcycle enthusiasts,” said Paulding County Sheriff’s Maj. Tom Murphy, an organizer of the ride. “And, it’s an opportunity to help the youth of Georgia — give them a leg up. It’s helping other people in the state.”

The homes are in Hahira, Dalton, LaGrange, Swainsboro and Chatsworth. Children in the youth homes are usually placed there because either their parents have been put in jail or were killed, according to Murphy.

“It’s for youth who basically have nowhere to go,” he said. “These are good students and good children.”

Murphy said he had met state government employees who grew up in youth homes.

“The youth homes are a great idea. I’d just like to see more of them,” he said. “They’re tough to support, because there are no tax funds for them.”

Murphy said in past years, there have been about 70 motorcycles in the ride, with about 100 to 120 people altogether.

The ride is $25 per bike and $15 per rider, and the donation is tax deductible, as The Georgia Sheriffs’ Youth Homes Inc. is a nonprofit organization.

The ride is in memory of its founder, Maj. Lamar Hunton, who served as the jail administrator for the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office, which sponsors the event.

Hunton died days before the first ride took place in 2005.