By Judy O’Gorman Alvarez
RED BANK – Dean Ross is once again turning the lights on. As part of the Shine a Light program he created, the Red Bank businessowner and his friends from Monmouth Reform Temple will be set up at the Red Bank train station Sunday, Nov. 7 to install bike lights on any two-wheelers that roll in.
“We’re just trying to save lives,” Ross said.
More than six years ago while driving, Ross had a close encounter with a man riding a bike on Newman Springs Road. It was difficult to see the cyclist who was garbed in black. “He was wearing nothing with illumination,” Ross said, “and had no lights on his bike.”
The problem is so commonplace in this area, said Ross, that he sees it all the time. It appears to be restaurant and kitchen workers, often wearing black, riding their bikes to and from late night shifts. They are vulnerable to motorists, especially if their bikes are not equipped with lights.
As a result, Ross and Monmouth Reform Temple connected with St. Anthony of Padua parish and formed the Shine a Light program, installing lights on bikes for residents who cannot afford them.
“We’ve put lights on over 400 bikes,” he said.
“We get bikes in all sizes, shapes and conditions,” he said. “Some are missing parts. We once were asked to put a light on a crutch. And we did.”
This year, working with Red Bank Chief of Police Darren McConnell, the Shine a Light program will be held at the Red Bank train station, from 1 to
4 p.m., Nov. 7, rain or shine.
“We figured the train station is a neutral area,” he said. “We put up a tent and a banner.” Because many of the cyclists are Spanish speaking, “Lt. Juan Sardo, who speaks Spanish, has been there in the past.”
Last spring, they installed lights on 51 bikes at the Red Bank Primary School.
Ross, part owner of Bagel Oven and Shapiro’s New York Style Delicatessen, grew up in Red Bank and has been active in community service projects at Monmouth Reform Temple and in Red Bank for years. He would like to see more bike lanes throughout the surrounding towns.
His reward comes when kids and adults are riding their bikes safely through the streets. Or when a mother, grateful for the lights they installed on her two children’s bikes, brought the volunteers homemade treats.
But it’s all about “making the roads safer,” he said.
Donations of bike helmets – for adults or children – are always welcome. For more information, contact dmshoppe@aol.com.
The article originally appeared in the November 4 – 10, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
