GREENFIELD — Surely, you’ve seen them. They’re hard to miss — the eye-catching, brightly colored and beautifully decorated bikes adorning the downtown area. It’s Bikes in Bloom calling attention to Greenfield’s bicycle-friendly community.
Sponsored by Greenfield Main Street, Bikes in Bloom is in its sixth year of its three-fold purpose: to beautify downtown, to call attention to the community’s nonprofit organizations who participate, and to encourage cyclists to bike downtown to enjoy Greenfield’s shops, restaurants and events.
Each spring, Greenfield’s nonprofits are invited to engage in a friendly competition to create the most beautiful or uniquely decorated bicycle.
Rachel Holmes, owner of Indie Art Studio and a member of the Hancock County Arts board of directors, volunteered to design and decorate a bike for the arts organization. Holmes browsed the internet for ideas and settled on a design involving paint chips befitting an organization dedicated to artists.
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Holmes laminated and sewed the 72 chips — donated by Home Depot — weaving them through the spokes of the bike wheels with fishing line. Holmes estimated that she put in between six and eight hours of work on the bike, which is stationed outside Hancock Arts’ Twenty North Gallery at 20 N. State St.
Shelley Swift, director of Greenfield Main Street, has seen the program grow from around 16 participants to a couple of dozen for this year’s event.
In past years, Swift said, the winning bikes have been selected through Facebook voting, but this year Swift assembled a panel of three judges — Mayor Chuck Fewell, Amanda Everidge from Healthy 365 and Mitch Doran, owner of the Family Bike Chain — to pick the winners.
The judges scored the bikes in three categories — creativity, flower power and how the bike related the mission of the nonprofit that created it. First place went to Regreening Greenfield for the hand-carved wooden bike on display in front of Greenfield Chocolates at 15 W. Main St., and second place went to the Partners for Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) bike located in front of the Nutty Mutt, 16 W. North St. Both groups will receive a new child’s bike to be used to help promote each group’s mission.
The bikes will be on display through June 16.
