WESTBROOK, Maine — Brett Morava is always looking out for the students at his school, so much so that the school resource officer noticed that one of the students at Westbrook High School was struggling with attendance.
The bus was apparently not able to make a stop near the student's house, and his caregivers couldn't drop him off, so the teen was missing class often. Morava knew there had to be a way to help him out.
"I talked to a principal and said, 'OK, if we can get him a bike.' I was able to find out that he had to walk to and from school, and he isn't able to take a bus because he lives short enough to the school, so there's no bus allocated for him, so he has trouble getting here," Morava said.
The officer made a phone call to Ernie's Cycle Shop, which is just a three-minute drive from the high school, to see if they might have a bike the student could use to get to and from school.
"I found a bicycle that a customer donated, and we went through, and we fixed it up, and we put a tire on it and did a full tune-up on it," Bruce Wallingford, owner of Ernie's Cycle Shop, said.
"About a week went by, he [Wallingford] called me back, and he said, 'Brett I have a bike for him!' I was elated!" Morava said.
It was the excitement that pushed Wallingford to come up with an idea to help even more students by accepting used bikes from community members, having students participate in the repairs process, then rewarding them with a tuned-up bicycle to take home and use.
"We haven't figured out the details and how it's going to work, but the idea is to give them ownership and to also give them some skills as part of their work to school," Wallingford said. "It's in its infancy, so we haven't figured it all out yet, but we are hoping to affect a lot more children if we can."
For now, Wallingford said people interested in donating used bicycles that still have some life in them can stop by and drop them off at his shop on 105 Conant St. in Westbrook.
For Morava, finding a need in his community and being able to help is what he said his role is all about.
"For him [the student] not to worry now in the back of his mind that he knows when he gets up in the morning he has a bike, he can come to school," the school resource officer said.
"I think we have achieved that," Wallingford added.