Tri Star students make new bike rack for Grand Lake

Students from Tri Star’s Welding Program are putting their skills to use in order to help the public. Students recently completed a bike rack that is being used at the Grand Lake St. Marys State Park by their camp store, just in time for eclipse visitors.

“Last year I reached out to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to ask them if they needed anything fixed, replaced, or built,” said Welding Instructor/ SkillsUSA Advisor Aaron Schmitt.

Schmitt said he didn’t initially hear back from ODNR, but eventually, he did hear back from them saying they were thinking about a bike rack.

“We like to do community service projects towards the end of their senior year. We have more time to do projects that benefit the community as a whole,” said Schmitt. Once the bike rack was mentioned, Schmitt said he handed it over to his students to brainstorm about what to do.

“They wanted something lake-themed and we had done several fish bike racks on the other side of the lake,” said Schmitt. One of Schmitt’s students found some inspiration in a design and felt they could modify it into a bike rack.

“We threw it on the CAD for a few days and we got something we thought worked. We sent the image to ODNR and they liked it, and we went with it,” said Schmitt.

“It gives you a lot of responsibility. Mr. Schmitt trusted me to do this,” said Senior Kayden Giere from Coldwater. He said