Laketran Recent History
Laketran’s CEO Ben Capelle stated, “We are thrilled to offer local students the chance to incorporate public transportation with public art. Collaborating with local schools helps us foster creativity and engagement while highlighting the importance of public transportation in our region.” (Laketran Unveils Winning Design of Student Bus Wrap Art Contest)
Laketran’s buses offer support to the entire Lake County community. These buses offer reliable transportation and many amenities that are consistent throughout all buses and transportation services offered. These services include, but are not limited to local route buses, motor coach buses, Dial-a-Ride buses, vans, and minivans – and all services are 100% ADA accessible.
Laketran has 162 vehicles in total and travels over 4.6 million miles a year. To celebrate 50 years of service to Lake County, in January, Laketran expanded Frank R. Angeloro Laketran Headquarters, expanding their outreach and services in hopes of another 50 years!
Laketran Annual Competition
On April 9, 2025, a ceremony was held to celebrate the newest Laketran bus, which was designed by none other than a student at Mentor. According to Laketran, over 110 designs were submitted. This year’s winning theme was “50 years of a cleaner, greener, Lake County,” according to Laketran.
This competition is highly competitive throughout Lake County. Students from around the county compete against each other to have their designs featured on a Dial-a-Ride Laketran bus. Out of the 110 applicants, the top two were from Mentor.
The winning design will be featured on a bus wrapped with material provided by Avery Dennison. This design will be on this bus for the next year until the next competition.
The Winners
Lily Walker, a Sophomore, won with her design featuring monarch butterflies. Lily states, “I was inspired by the monarch butterflies that migrate to our marsh every summer. Their journey represents change and resilience, which felt perfect for celebrating Lake County’s 50 years of being a greener place.” Lily went on to explain that the marsh she was inspired by was the Mentor Marsh in the Headlands, where she visits with her grandparents frequently. Walker’s design was truly inspired and showed a level of creativity that can not be taught or learned. I had the opportunity to ask Walker a few questions about her design and what inspired her.
Cardinal Nation: Can you walk us through your creative process for this artwork?
Walker: My creative process involved a lot of trial and error, just seeing what looked best in certain areas or on each side of the bus, what colors compliment each other best, and just trying to create an equal amount of negative space on the bus so that the design wasn’t too busy.
Cardinal Nation: Did you face any challenges while creating the piece?
Walker: The biggest challenge I faced while creating my design was probably making each butterfly because I had to draw them individually on the computer, so it took a long time, and it was a very tedious process.
Thank you, Lily, and congratulations!
Grace Judson took 2nd place with her design that largely featured beautiful aspects of nature, with a cyclist, a clear path, in what appears to be a park.
