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Bike racks for bus stops

3 min read

Thursday morning, on the corner of Stringfellow Road and Marina Road, there were about a dozen bicycles chained to trees, poles and even signs. This is just one location where Pine Island Elementary students leave their bicycles to catch the bus to school.

Seeing the bikes, Bokeelia resident and welder Shelly Lavigne noticed a need.

“I realized that the school children of Pine Island simply needed bike racks,” Lavigne said. “There’s a need all over the island but we decided to install the first bike rack on this corner because there are so many bicycles here every school day.

“The project is called Bike Racks for Bus Stops,” Lavigne said. “I’m lucky that my neighbor, Don McGowan, is a trustee at the Pine Island Elks and it was Don that suggested that he would talk to the Elks membership about sponsoring the first bike rack.”

“This was a no-brainer for us,” McGowan said. “There is an obvious need for these and the rack is made out of aluminum and powder-coated so it will never rust.”

Lavigne’s business is West Coast Powder Coating and she’s been fabricating metal for 30 years.

“After 30 years of hard labor I was encouraged by one of my neighbors to create some art,” Lavigne said. “I made two or three pieces for her garden, which led to more residents in my neighborhood wanting metal art for their yards.”

The bike racks are a more recent effort.

“I built the first bike rack for someone in Matlacha,” Lavigne said. “It is the ‘shark’ bike rack on the corner of Pine Island Road and Island Ave next to Pampered Pup. That’s where the original idea came from. After building several more bike racks, and seeing all the bikes along Stringfellow, I came up with ‘Bike Racks for Bus Stops.’

“The Elk head on this bike rack was designed by Ryan Levigne and my contribution to this is to lower my hourly rate to make these racks affordable for any organization that wants to help out – we’re going to need more of these.”

“The Elks is going to run this in our local newsletter, our national newsletter and the national magazine,” McGowan said. “This is our island. I live here full time. I love it and this is just another way to help the children of Pine Island. I would challenge other local organizations to step up to the plate and become a sponsor.”

“I love this island and hope to continue to serve our community in this fashion,” Lavigne said. “I will still do small repairs but I really enjoy ‘metal art’ and hope I get to make many more bike racks for the children of Pine island.”

The Pine Island Elks Lodge, #2781, is at 5630 Pine Island Road, NW., in Bokeelia, FL 33922-3132. For more about the Elks, call 239-283-4388.