ESCONDIDO -- Patches on their leather and denim jackets proclaimed alliances with mean-sounding motorcycle clubs like the "Gunfighters" and the "Sinners and Saints," but the hundreds of bikers who rumbled into central Escondido Saturday shared a benign purpose.

Event organizers said about 150 riders cruised from San Juan Capistrano to Escondido for the "poker run" fundraiser to help the search for missing Escondido teen Amber Dubois.

About 100 more bikers showed up at the Amber Search Center, on the corner of Mission Avenue and Quince Street, to listen to live music, check out each others' motorcycles and get in on raffles supporting the search.

Maurice Dubois, father of the Escondido High School student last seen walking near the school Feb. 13, said he didn't know much about bikers or motorcycles. But he hoped the event, organized by the San Diego Confederation of Clubs, would help keep the story of his missing daughter alive. With police turning up no leads on her disappearance, he said, it has become harder as time passes to enlist volunteers and spread the word that people should call with any information about Amber's disappearance.

"The more attention the better," Dubois said. "There's got to be someone out there who knows something."

Amber's family members say she would never run away, and they believe she was abducted. Police have said there is no strong evidence to support either theory.

In their matching club jackets, long beards and tattoos, the groups on two-wheeled cruisers attracted plenty of attention Saturday. Taking advantage of the spectacle, people stood on Mission Avenue with large signs calling for more search volunteers.

Kyle Cearley, a member of the Peckerwoods Motorcycle Club in East County helped organize the Saturday ride. She said the plight of Amber and her family had resonated with him and others in his club.

"I've got kids and so do a lot of these guys," he explained.

Bonnie Collins, the treasurer of the North County-based women's motorcycle club Graveyard Gamblers, said she came out for the fun of the ride and, she hoped, for a good cause.

"They really need to find that girl," she said.

Entry fees for the event, in which riders made several stops to pick up playing cards to incorporate into a poker hand, was $30 for individuals and $35 for riders with a passenger. Maurice Dubois said he was unsure how much money was raised.

But he said that the riders with the best poker hands had declined over $1,000 of $1,200 offered in prize money, instead donating it back to the search fund.

"It shows you the kind of heart these people have," he said.

Dubois said he had a meeting with Escondido police this week, in part to discuss how to best spend the money raised to search for Amber. Rebecca Smith, Maurice Dubois' longtime girlfriend, said that before Saturday's event, the Amber Leanne Dubois Trust Fund had about $12,000 in donations.

Amber's family is again asking for search volunteers to meet at 8 a.m. Sunday at the search center on Quince Street.

Anyone with information about Amber's whereabouts should call Escondido police at (760) 839-4722. More information about Amber is available at the family-run Web site www.bringamberhome.com.

Contact staff writer Sarah Gordon at (760) 740-3517 or sgordon@nctimes.com.