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Our first fundraiser for a WHEELCHAIR TRISHAW

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 We are utilising the convenient features of the Zeffy platform to provide our donors and supporters with the opportunity to help bring the first wheelchair trishaw to Mississauga. The aim is over the next six months to raise half the cost of purchasing this incredible machine that will give wheelchair bound passengers the chance for 'wind in their hair' by taking them out for a ride along safe and scenic trails in Mississauga. We chose the Zeffy platform as they assure we will receive 100% of donor funds.  They do have a field where you can support their platform with a percentage or dollar amount but this is completely optional. We also have a corporate donor who is matching all funds raised dollar for dollar so your donation goes further than double the cash value as you will also receive a tax receipt for the same. If you choose to enter our premium monthly draw for top donors of $100 or more, you will be entered into a pool to receive a voucher of almost equivalent valu...
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Recap of 2024

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 For our second year of operation, we decided to ride two days of the week, Tuesdays and Thursdays between the two homes we service.  Since the trishaw is housed at Port Credit Residences, we offered them the first and third Tuesday of the month with exceptions for special circumstances or to make up rain date cancellations.  Since we had to transfer the trishaw to Shores of Port Credit, we felt it appropriate to ride there on consecutive ride dates allowing for changes as needed so their rides would fall on the Thursday following the first Tuesday of the month and then following Tuesday after the weekend.  It didn't always work out but that was the plan. We would keep the other ride days for special events (other homes bringing their residents down to Port Credit for rides) make up days for weather or illness related cancellations as well as scheduling the last Thursday of every month for public rides in the Port Credit area.  For the most part it worked out we...
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Passenger Handbook and Waivers (individual & facility)

 This page and downloadable PDF document is to help individual passengers as well as facility directors understand the limitations and liabilities of the Cycling Without Age - Mississauga program. Embedded below is the simplified two page Passenger Waiver that needs to be signed prior to taking a ride with CWA-M
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Phil Green Recognition Award

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One day after a spectacular ride in Port Credit with the Slow Rollers I was chatting with Marah diNola who had trained as a pilot with our program.  She has an effervescent personality and everyone loves being around her.  Out of the blue she stated "you should get the Phil Green award" next year.  I laughed at the notion and retorted that there were many other better candidates than me for the prestigious award that recognizes a leader in the field of cycling and bike infrastructure in the City of Mississauga. In 2003 the City of Mississauga created the Phil Green Recognition Award in “in recognition of the outstanding work done by Mr Phil Green in promoting safe cycling and sustainable transportation in Mississauga”. Mr. Green created and was the first chair of the Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee in Mississauga. The Phil Green Recognition Award is presented annually by the Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee to a person or persons who have demonstrated exempla...
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First ride: Klare goes to Chartwell; Clare goes for a ride

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 As we were winding up our first session of pilot training orientation and hands on experience, I felt it was getting to the time to move Klare to Port Credit so that the next phase of our training could be done on the actual trails we had planned for our ride season. As I had been a little under the weather last week, I postponed the call for an escort to ride Klare the 6.5km from home to Chartwell Robert Speck until the night before the planned event.  I had decided that a Saturday morning would be best as traffic would be light and co-pilots more available than during the week.  My message out our Streetsville Slow Rollers got several responses and Kim Tan, who is still recovering from his broken collarbone (cycling casualty) offered to attend and record the send off from 1113 Dreamcrest. Although I wasn't feeling the greatest on Saturday morning, the sight of our escort riders buoyed my spirits and we were ready to roll within a few minutes of the designated 10:00am ...
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All About TB Testing

 If you volunteer in a hospital, long term care facility or private retirement residence around seniors then this may be old hat for you.  However, my first exposure was in a conversation with a Life Enrichment Manager at Chartwell Robert Speck. URGENT ADDENDUM ** (as of May 5, ,2023...Scroll to the bottom) While explaining to her our program and the benefits of the excursions on the mental health of their residents, she nonchalantly mentioned that their volunteers needed to get tested for TB.  Having experienced the rigmarole of having got my Level 3 Vulnerable Sector Police clearance certificate after having to submit my fingerprints since my gender and birthdate matched an offender, I was prepared... which is an understatement. As I had not heard of this requirement from any other home I was negotiating with (until more recently when discussing with the Activities Manager at Evergreen Verve), I went online and found the volunteer requirements for Chartwell Volunteers ...
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First Hands-On Training Session

 Hats off to Joanne Foote for braving through our first actual hands-on training session with Klare!  We were having so much fun that I completely forgot to take any pictures. Being a gorgeous (if slightly cool) afternoon and a wet and windy forecast for the weekend, I was keen on getting some tread time in before the end of the month.  Fortunately Joanne's scheduled opened up and the stars aligned for us to spend an hour (or more?... don't really know where the time went but we had a great time) in the afternoon under sunny skies to go over the basics of the trishaw operations first and then a road trip. I went through a checklist we plagiarized from Wisconsin and touched on all the basics of all the operative features of the trishaw from the mechanical parts to operating the electric assist and battery removal for remote charging.  Since lunch hour had just passed at the High School (Rick Hansen's) opposite my place we opted to take a short cut through their ground...
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