Last week the director of the Audubon Park Garden District, Kat Quast, relocated the APGD office down one storefront and noted that something had disappeared. Four large steel bike racks that had been staged behind the office building, awaiting installation at area businesses, had vanished.
The recycled bike racks had been procured from playgrounds with grant money from the City of Orlando and through bake sales. The value is said to be "hundreds of dollars" by Quast.
The four playground-recycled racks would have needed a truck and strong hands to steal, and were most likely sold for scrap metal, theorizes Quast.
The bike racks were intended to make the area friendlier to bicyclists and to encourage people to get out of their cars more.
"This is so frustrating," says Quast. "We're a tiny non-profit and it won't be easy to make up the hundreds of dollars we've lost... It's a really big deal to us."
Volunteers are hopeful the thieves will eventually be caught even while they plan more cupcake sales to raise money to replace the racks.
The Audubon Park Garden District is a 501(c)(3) non-profit Main Street program and is accredited through the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Established with matching grants from the City of Orlando in 2009, the District's mission is to promote economic vitality and community redevelopment along the Corrine Drive corridor.
For more information contact Kat Quast of APGD at 407-590-8776 or Jennifer Marvel of MarvelUS Marketing at 407-616-2747.