North Rowan high schoolers to raffle off bicycle they restored
Published 12:00 am Thursday, January 30, 2025
STEM club members at NRHS who worked for two months to fully restore this Fire Arrow bike from Columbia to then raffle off as a fundraiser for the club and a local charity. Submitted photo
The fully restored version of the 1961 Columbia Fire Arrow bicycle that STEM club members restored for a project. Submitted photo
The donated Columbia Fire Arrow that students at North Rowan High School spent two months restoring. The bike will now be raffled off and half of the proceeds will go to charity, the other half to the club for the next project. Submitted photo
By Elisabeth Strillacci
elisabeth.strillacci@salisburypost.com
SPENCER — When their teacher asked members of the STEM Club at North Rowan High School what they wanted to tackle for their project this year, she didn’t expect that they would decide to do something she herself had done.
Casey Fortson came back to her alma mater to teach science two years ago. When she and other teachers were batting around ideas for clubs, she suggested STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
“We don’t have those classes here at the high school, like technology or welding or machining,” she said. “So it made sense to at least offer it in a club a few days a week.”
The club started with five members, but in its one year of existence has already more than doubled in size, with 11 members to date.
When Fortson asked the students what project they would like to tackle this year, they asked about things that she had done.
“I told them I’d restored a car and a bicycle, and that caught their attention,” she said. “They decided they wanted to restore a bike.” But then they needed to find someone to donate one that would fit the bill. Fortunately, a man in Faith reached out and offered to donate one he had.
The bicycle is a red 1961 Columbia Fire Arrow, with an internal gear hub and the look of a gas tank under the seat, though it’s all human powered.
“It’s not a particularly special bike, but it does have some cool design elements,” said Fortson.
Once they got the bike and began to work, Fortson said she asked students what they wanted to do with the bike once it was complete. They could, she said, display it or they could sell it. The students decided to sell it, but what they decided to do with the profits surprised and delighted her.
“I asked if they wanted to keep all the proceeds for the club, or if maybe they wanted to donate half of the money to a charity,” she said. “They decided pretty quickly that they wanted to donate half.”
Students in the program are sophomores and juniors, ages 15, 16 and 17, and Fortson said to see them decide to share the money “made me feel really good. It’s not every day that teenage boys think of others when it comes to money, just because of where they are in life. So this is very special. I’m proud of them.”
The other half of the funds will go to the club, toward their next project — building an electric skateboard.
Students tore the bicycle all the way down, found an additional donor bicycle, tore that down as well and made one good bicycle out of both parts.
The group wanted to stay as close to the original design as possible, so they researched what the bike would have looked like new. After they completed the reconstruction, they finished it with a powder coated red paint job, thanks to a local powder coat company in town. They used silver paint for the fenders since the chrome was too damaged to restore. Finally, they used a computer software to trace the original decals from pictures and recreate them using a Cricut die-cutting/CNC machine.
The entire project, start to finish, took about two months, said Fortson. Now, the club is selling raffle tickets to raise money for both the club and a charity, though they have not yet selected which organization will received the funds.
“Because the check will be cut by the school, the organization will need to submit a W-9, so that does limit us somewhat, and the kids are still considering what organization to choose.”
Tickets are available until March 31, and the drawing will be held and the winner announced on April 5 during the annual STEMfest. The event runs from 10 a.m. til 1 p.m. and Fortson says the winner will be announced at 11 a.m. The winner does not have to be present.
Students in the STEM club who worked on the project include Jason Castillo, Jayden Thompson, Dalton Anderson, Sean Covington, Jordan Gresham and Tiah Holloway. In addition to Fortson, staff members include Angelo McCaw, Hector Calleja and Dana Jordan.
Fortson said there are three ticket purchase levels with difference price points: $1 for one ticket, $5 for six tickets or $10 for 15 tickets. She wanted to be sure people know there is a service fee for the online purchase of $1, “so if you buy one ticket, you’ll see it’s $2 but that’s just one ticket. Unfortunately there was no way around the service fee.”
Links to purchase tickets are: $10 – 15 tickets https://rss.schoolcashonline.
