When you pass the hat on Fishers Island, evidently, it fills up pretty quickly.

A campaign to build a bike path connecting the various estates of the east end of the island, for instance, easily netted more than a half million dollars in donations in 2008, according to a tax return filed this year.

The money came in very big denominations. No one gave less than $5,000. (A suggested minimum?) Many gave two and three times that. And there were really big givers, $20,000, $36,000, even $50,000.

The off-island addresses of some donors hint at the pedigree of the money: Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue in Manhattan and Chestnut and Mount Vernon streets in Boston, to name drop a few.

Other generous summer residents of the island hail the rest of the year from places like Greenwich, Bryn Mawr, Scarsdale and Dallas.

The bike path organizers had a little more than a million dollars in assets on hand by the end of 2008. The 2009 return is not in yet, but much of the estimated $3 million cost of the four-mile path must have been raised by now.

The project has wetlands approvals from the Long Island town of Southold, N.Y., the municipality of which the island is a part, and some brush-cutting and clearing has begun.

All of this raising of money to build a bike path alongside a private road within a gated summer enclave might not really be anyone else's business, if not for the islanders' creative use of the tax code, which in fact has made this a public project.

The bike path is actually the work of a non-profit 501 c (3), The Fishers Island Recreational Path Foundation.

And all those beefy donations for the project made by islanders are tax deductible.

So does that mean that we here in southeastern Connecticut can plan on ferrying over to the island sometime soon, for some leisurely use of the new recreational path?

Well, no.

A brochure enticing islanders to get behind the project in 2003 went out of its way to reassure everyone that would not happen.

The path will not cause "an unwanted influx of visitors to the island" or "excessive usage by off-islanders."

But must not the path be open to the public if it was built by a charitable, tax-exempt organization?

Well, no, not exactly, at least not the way it's been planned.

You see, the path will be made available for use by all the residents of Southold, the so-called "public."

Of course, if you live anywhere in Southold except Fishers Island, getting to the bike path will hardly be convenient. You have to take a ferry from Long Island to New London, then another ferry to the island.

And if you want to bring a bike to ride on the path, the Fishers Island Ferry District is going to charge you $44 to bring it over and another $44 to take it home.

With those rules, I suppose it is indeed safe to say that there won't be "excessive use by off-islanders."

I am always impressed by the generosity of the fortunate when it goes to the worthy and needy.

Indeed I am sure that some of the charitable foundations that gave money to the Fishers Island bike path fund - one donated $150,000 - most certainly at the bidding of islanders who control them, contribute to many good causes.

I just don't see how helping further the recreation of the wealthy at their summer retreat could be considered one of them.

In fact I'd say giving to yourself in the name of charity is shameful.

This is the opinion of David Collins.