BOKEELIA, Fla. — Soon students will be headed home for winter break and for some Lee County students, they’ll be headed home for the holidays with a new bicycle.
"I received a phone call approximately a month ago. Caught me by surprise,” said Dr. Michael Galbreath, Principal of Pine Island Elementary School.
Galbreath says the person on the other side of the phone told him they wanted to donate bikes to all of his students during a time that’s draining for many families on the island.
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"This donation is really going to be very impactful to all of our students, because, as you mentioned, there are a number who lost items in floods and in the hurricanes, so this is definitely going to be a big, big deal for our students and a huge impact for our school community,” said Galbreath.
The person on the other side of the phone was Roger Lolly, along with his wife Kristen. They are donating 160 bikes to the families who signed up, which they say it's the least they could do for these families in their time of need.
"We just kind of thought of it from a parent's perspective, and thought like, maybe we could just kind of take a little ease off these parents for a little bit,” said Kristen Lolly. "They just keep getting hit, and they're so resilient out there.”
Roger Lolly is a Pine Island Elementary alumni himself, so he says it was a no-brainer to help the community that's helped him so much.
"I can't remember one time that I was ever in need of anything, because there's always someone stepping up and helping out,” said Roger Lolly.
The Lolly's are also opening up a community center in 2025 that they say will serve as a safe space for students and offer tutoring.
"There's a lot of good people now on the island that stepped up and are doing good things, but I don't think there's, you can't have too many programs out there that can help the kids, so we're just trying to do our part and help,” said Roger Lolly.
Students will pick up their bikes at Pine Island Elementary School on Saturday morning.
"I want to see the kids' faces when they get them. Yeah, that's always the best part, we have kids, and that's the best part of Christmas,” said Roger Lolly.
