Eagle Scout, Clovis Veterans Memorial District honor veterans through bike rack project

A bike chained to one of the new bike racks at Clovis Veterans Memorial District Building. (Photo by Ron Sundquist)


Johnny Martin | Reporter
@jmart_17

An Eagle Scout project has brought a much-needed aspect to the Clovis Veterans Memorial Building, installing two brand new bike racks to fit the modern design of the building.

Eagle Scout Ezana Mesfin came up with the project of adding bike racks to both the north and south sides of the memorial building in downtown Clovis.

“Ezana came to us about four months ago wanting to do a scout project,” Clovis Veterans Memorial District’s Facilities Manager Derek Snook said. “As a district we’re looking to do more projects like that and adding bike racks was a definite need.”

Once Mesfin received the okay from the district, he began his research, the fundraising and the building process on this project. Once the project started, Mesfin handled every aspect of it all on his own.

Looking to create a community and campus-like environment style to intrigue more people to start biking, the two sides saw a need for bike racks and partnered for the bike rack project.

“It’s the old adage: ‘honor the past, live the present, and inspire the future,’” Clovis Veterans Memorial District CEO Lorenzo Rios Said. “This young man is going to excel and do remarkable things in the future and we’re blessed to have a young man like that.”

Mesfin created bike racks with words lining the top like “duty” and “honor” to symbolize the different branches of the military. He also included gold medallions representing each and every branch of the military.

“Our mission statement is provide a permanent living memorial honoring U.S. military and veterans,” Rios said. “The second part is really important, support programs that promote a legacy of service for preserving our community and country’s foundational ideals so for me it could not be a more honorable mission than that.”

The Clovis Veterans Memorial District was formed to recognize, honor and serve the veterans of the Clovis area. They have been doing so since 1946 and the bike racks are just the next step in the active duty of honoring our veterans.

“I have a challenge to everybody who reads this,” Rios said. “I challenge everybody to celebrate what’s right in America and this is one of those examples of what’s right in America.”