Making Malverne bike-friendly

Fourteen-year-old Fiona Marren, who has raised over $1,200 for the purchase of at least 10 bike racks that will be installed on village sidewalks, with one of the racks she’d like to buy.

Rossana Weitekamp

What the bike racks might look like.

Courtesy: Fiona Marren

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Necessity is the mother of invention, and that is surely the case for Malvernite Fiona Marren, who had a need for a service, and is now making that service happen.

Fiona, a 14-year-old Girl Scout who runs errands on her bike in downtown Malverne, recently noticed that there was no place to secure her ride when she needed to go into a store. “I’d have to lock my bike to a lamppost or a street sign,” said Fiona, a member of Troop 841 and an eighth-grader at St. Agnes Cathedral School, both in Rockville Centre.

As it happened, she was looking for ideas for a project for her Girl Scout Silver Award. Then inspiration struck: Why not equip Malverne with bike racks and make the village more bike-friendly? “My troop leader thought it was a great idea,” Fiona said, “so I got in contact with several bike rack companies.”

To finance her project, she created a website called GoFundMe.com/bikemalverne, where she has raised over $1,200 in the past three weeks for the purchase of bike racks. “I’m looking to purchase as many as I can — at least 10,” said Fiona, who wants to buy green racks that match the village’s benches and light posts. “I’m going to go around the village and find good spots to put them with the mayor soon.”

Malverne Mayor Patricia McDonald confirmed her involvement. “Paul Jessup and I will be helping Fiona select the most ideal places in the village for the racks,” she said. Once Fiona has the racks and the locations set, the village Department of Public Works will install them. She is aiming to have that completed by mid-June.

In addition, she has organized a bike safety program for children in kindergarten through fifth grade at the Malverne Public Library on June 4. “We’ve hired a trainer from BikeNY — a company in New York City that gives classes to kids and teachers,” Fiona explained. “I was able to get an instructor to come to the Malverne Library to teach the class.” There will be two free classes, the first from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., for kindergartners through second-graders, and the second from 1:30 to 2:30, for those in third through fifth grades.