The second annual Murph-Fest will be held at the B&M Tavern in Panora tomorrow, and though it is still a relatively young fundraiser, it’s undoubtedly growing.

Now, some may wonder: what is Murph-Fest?  Well, it started last year to raise monies for Richard Murphy, aka “Murph,” after he was was badly injured in a motorcycle accident last July.

This year’s fundraiser will not only benefit Murph, but also area resident Jesi Ruchti who is battling breast cancer.  Event planner Mandi Hutchins says she and other organizers are hoping to reach even more people with Murph-Fest in the years ahead.

“We do plan on continuing something of the sort, not sure if we’ll still call it Murph-Fest or if we’ll change the name, but yes, we do plan to continue doing something every year for somebody in our local area that needs help.”

One of the signature events of tomorrow’s Murph-Fest is a poker run that will take participants to a sponsored location in Jamaica, Perry, Adel and Redfield before heading back to Panora, and this widespread community involvement is what Hutchins says makes the event so special.

“We had a ton of supporters in the first year of Murph-Fest… way more than I thought we would have.  So I just continued to call a lof the businesses that helped us last year to get them involved in it this year as well.

And we plan on changing the location every year when we have (the fundraiser) to help out the business or another town so that when people get involved it’s like, ‘they helped us this year, let’s help them next year’.”

Tune-in to today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program on K107 to hear our full conversation with Hutchins.  She’ll discuss what Murph-Fest is all about during the 9am, noon and 5pm hours.