- November 16, 2025
A group of Ruff, Rock and Roll Poker Run participants at the Oceanside Bar and Grill. Photo by Hannah Hodge
Mac McCarty draws a card at the Oceanside Beach Bar and Grill during the Ruff, Rock and Roll Poker Run. Photo by Hannah Hodge
A group of Ruff, Rock and Roll Poker Run participants at the Oceanside Bar and Grill. Photo by Hannah Hodge
Marshall Shebelski, Diana Shebelski, and Mark Shebelski dine at the Oceanside Beach Bar and Grill during the Ruff, Rock and Roll Poker Run. Photo by Hannah Hodge
Clif Boyer and Debbie Boyer at the Oceanside Beach Bar and Grill, participating in the Ruff, Rock and Roll Poker Run. Photo by Hannah Hodge
Blue Sky Enderley in his Motorcycle Sidecar at the Oceanside Beach Bar and Grill during the Ruff, Rock and Roll Poker Run. Photo by Hannah Hodge
Volunteers Connie Whitehead, Jami Gallegos, Ann Forsell, and Alan Cooley manager of the Oceanside Beach Bar and Grill during the Ruff, Rock and Roll Poker Run. Photo by Hannah Hodge
Blue Sky Enderley in his Motorcycle Sidecar at the Oceanside Beach Bar and Grill during the Ruff, Rock and Roll Poker Run. Photo by Hannah Hodge
A local Biketober Fest event combined bikers’ love to ride with a charity fundraiser for dog-friendly beaches.
On Oct. 16, the inaugural Ruff, Rock & Roll Poker Run raised funds for Daytona Dog Beach Inc., a local nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and promoting year-round dog-friendly beaches in Volusia County. Daytona Dog Beach was the driving force behind Ormond Beach’s now permanent dog beach and the recent approval of a dog beach for Daytona.
Daytona Dog Beach Inc. President Nanette Petrella said they are still putting together the total amount raised.
“We definitely made more than I anticipated,” she said. “I mean, it's in the thousands.”
Around 70 bikers participated in the fundraiser, she said, and with the volunteers, there were around 90 people at the after party event. Riders collected poker hands at each stop or could draw all their hands at once if they were short on time. There were raffle prizes, live music and more.
The Poker Run started at the Hard Rock Hotel in Daytona Beach before riders cruised along a pre-planned route to Oceanside Beach Bar & Grill, Ormond Garage, Caribbean Jack’s, The Cabbage Patch in Samsula, Tiki Docks River Bar & Grill and Racing’s North Turn before returning to the Hard Rock for the after party and prizes.
The nonprofit has had a “run” of success in 2025. In April, the Volusia County Council voted 5-0 to make a pilot dog-friendly beach program in Ormond Beach permanent. The pilot program began in November 2023 to allow dogs on a 0.6-mile stretch of beach in Ormond between Milsap Road and Rockefeller Drive.
On Oct. 7, the council approved in a 6-0 vote to move forward with amending a county ordinance to allow a second dog-friendly beach location in Daytona. This 1.7-mile section of beach will be located from Williams Boulevard to the Seabreeze Boulevard approach.
Both beaches will have leash requirements for dogs on the beach, and there is not an opening date yet for the Daytona location, as the council still needs to change the ordinance.
Daytona Dog Beach Inc. has helped educate and promote interest in the dog beaches, but, Petrella said, many businesses have become more dog-friendly over the last two years the Ormond dog beach has been open. Many in the area of the future Daytona dog beach are already dog-friendly, but even a few businesses that are not have been supportive.
During the October Volusia County Council presentation, Daytona Dog Beach had endorsement letters from the Ormond Beach and Daytona Regional Chambers of Commerce, from a realtors association and from the Hard Rock Hotel.
“Getting that endorsement, that they see the benefit to what this could mean for the area, for our residents, for our businesses, for our tourists,” Petrella said, “to me, that's really proof of what we felt all along. This was a positive thing.”
Since the October approval, Petrella said she has had many people reach out to be volunteers for the future Daytona dog beach. Daytona Dog Beach Inc. will pay for the startup costs like dog bag dispensers, dog bags, cleaning utensils for volunteers, signage and more.
The volunteers will be out on the beach daily to clean up and remove dog excrement left on the beach. But if the Ormond location is any indication, there may not be much for volunteers to clean.
“If they see dog mess, they pick it up. The really good news is they very seldom see it,” Petrella said. “What they also do while they're out there, that was sort of a side thing, is we began collecting trash.”
Between trash left behind by people and what washes up on the shores, Petrella said over 600 pounds of trash was collected in September.
As the nonprofit team works with the county to iron out the details of the new dog-friendly beach location, Petrella said she doesn’t know what’s next yet. But she said she has heard from people who want dog-friendly beaches in south Daytona Beach, from Ponce Inlet and New Smyrna and other locations.
Some may feel Daytona Dog Beach wants everything to be dog-friendly, she said, but that’s not the case – it’s really about what the community wants.
“What I want to happen is for the residents and the businesses in this area to drive what they want,” she said. “We want it to be something that's positive for the entire community.”
