Benches for our Babes is a community-based organization in Lee County Florida to advocate for children by providing a safe place for them to wait in the morning while waiting for their bus. The organization started as a grassroots community effort that has grown into something much larger than a few individuals and has sparked a movement in the hearts of our community. Their mission is to aid in the purchasing and placement of benches, picnic tables and other safety equipment using funds donated by members of the community. They are unpaid volunteers in the community who want to make a difference for future generations in SWFL.
Our movement was started by a few separate individuals. First Daniel Webb, after hearing what happened to Layla Aiken at her bus stop in Cape Coral, as a father, he felt something needed to be done. He had just purchased a picnic table for himself and went to Lowe’s to buy another for placement at a local bus stop, this was the creation of the #parkbenchchallenge video. He was then approached by Erin Diaz and Traci DeBusman of Cape Coral. These two ladies had already created the Facebook Group, Benches for our Babes ~ A Cape Coral Group Focused on Children’s Safety. They joined forces. As table donations began to flow, more people joined the movement. North Fort Myers and Lehigh Acres joined, followed shortly thereafter by Pine Island. Dan knew a contact at Lowe’s, where he got their first discount. Then Lowe’s decided to donate 100 tables. Our movement has had 4 large bench build events up at the NFM Airfield in a hangar that provides the perfect place for members of the community to band together and become an unstoppable voice and movement in the community. Our city liaisons and admins are diligently attending school board meetings, city council meetings and working with media across the county to keep this issue alive. Countless volunteer hours have been poured into the project while the county and city create their own plans to make the stops a safer place for kids. Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs have also set forth a plan with the City of Cape Coral as part of a pilot program.
Now let’s jump to Lehigh. When the Cape Coral group expanded rapidly, it was apparent that each city would need to create its own following to make sure a local representative could man the requests, work with its city’s own unique needs and policies. Jamie Tischner, known as Jamie Lynn on Facebook, then took the reins. She is a transplant from Minnesota, she works for Suncoast Credit Union as a Retirement Plan Consultant, a dedicated resource for district staff retirement planning and has lived in Lehigh for 4 years. As a mother, she understands the depth of impact these tragedies have on the community. She stepped forward to take on the task of Liaison for Lehigh Acres. Jamie attended the Lehigh Acres Community Council meeting on April 15th, 2019 where she was greeted with open minds. The Lehigh Acres Community Council, Lee County District 5 Commissioner Frank Mann was in attendance along with our Community Involvement Officer from LCSO, Kirk Hettrick. They allowed Jamie time to speak in the minutes as the benches were already up for discussion on the agenda. Jamie spoke about the cause and what the movement was doing in the community. She asked for their support and it was voted unanimously that Lee County district 5 and the Council are in favor of the movement. Lehigh Acres Community Council would like to see Lehigh Acres lead by example in providing our children with a safer place to wait for their buses. Lehigh Acres was already working to make bus stops a priority in placing new LED light at bus stops across the city. As they move forward in future meetings, local leaders plan to work with Jamie from Benches for our Babes – Lehigh Acres in leading the way for bus stop safety. LCSO Deputy Hettrick and members of the council have been in frequent contact to keep the community aware and involved in the project. Lehigh Acres will be having a build, date TBD at Mirror Lakes Golf Course. Jamie is working with a few local businesses to discuss details of fundraising events and build sites locally to encourage more local support.
The first bench in Lehigh was placed at Shadow Lakes and Bell Blvd, it was stolen after a few short days, prior to news coverage of the movement and it was replaced to be stolen again. After Jamie’s first build and delivery event, 16 more tables were placed in Lehigh Acres, one of those was also stolen off Milwaukee and Eisenhower. The thief committed a felony by cutting down a stop sign to access the table and chain, which is only the cost of about $85 per Lowe’s special pricing. That was not enough to slow the movement. Now that word is spreading, Lee County Sheriff’s and local police have been protecting these tables while encouraging kids to be safer at stops. During a delivery, Daniel Webb was even pulled over to make sure the tables were not being stolen, but when the officer noticed who he was, they all had a good laugh and let Dan continue on his way to drop more tables at stops. There are naysayers and other ideas floating around, but Benches for our Babes does not want to divide on the many ways we can make stops safer in Lee County, rather team up in efforts, ideas, etc.
As the movement continues to grow with exponential support from the community, each locality faces growing pains associated with the growth. With the busy lives of the leaders in the group and volunteers schedules rapidly changing from weekend to weekend, finding out more about how the needs vary, the teams work tirelessly to make sure everything runs smoothly, but the group got too big too fast and have run into some logistical issues. Where to build? Who is coming to deliver? Are there enough locks and chain? Do they have a sponsor for food or a porta-potty during events? All these questions arise week after week. The movement could use a hand. If you would like to help, please reach out to one of the groups and the local liaison would be extremely grateful for any assistance.
Lehigh Acres: Benches for our Babes – Lehigh Acres
Cape Coral: Benches for Our Babes~A Cape Coral Group Focused On Children’s Safety