Cycling Without Age - Mississauga

 After picking up Marybelle from Brantford last fall I had written to Ernie Porthouse about my plan to have a small ceremony when we were officially adding Marybelle to CWAM and he promised that he would be pleased to attend the same. As it happened, the over-winter parking at The Shores of Port Credit wasn't available so Marybelle spend the winter in my garage.  Having made the decision to retire in the fall of 2025 and started the process initially by putting the practice property and building up for sale, we were on a timeline for a spring closing when the offer stipulated a March 31st closing.  Having to declutter over 30 years of accumulation, equipment and furniture from the hospital was no mean feat but with little room left in my garage, I ended up pitching a small temporary shed beside the house to hold some of my precious possessions that wouldn't fit anywhere else. Having Marybelle close at hand over the winter allowed me to make the upgrades to her gradually....

 It came as a surprise to me when I first received a letter from the City of Mississauga that I had been nominated and selected to receive a new award instituted by the Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee for the City of Mississauga. I had been negotiating with other cycling colleagues on who we should nominate for the Phil Green Award for 2025 (to be awarded in 2026) and there was general consensus on a candidate who had done much for cycling in Mississauga.  I am pleased to announce that he did win this prestigious award which was a well deserved acknowledgement to his persistence and passion for improving cycling infrastructure in Mississauga while encouraging many more people to consider cycling not just as recreation but as a viable way to commute making a conscious decision to improve their lives and that of others who were or would be suffering from the coming effects of climate change. I was aware that there were a few more categories of awards created by the MCAC b...

As we develop our program, we would like to offer more retirement homes in Mississauga the opportunity to have their residents experience the safe and scenic trails along the Waterfront Trails in Port Credit.  To this end we have created a special route from the Rhododendron Gardens in the west to Tall Oaks Park in the east and vice versa . With this plan we can provide 4 rides for 8 passengers on a given day with two rides in the morning and two in the afternoon  (Delicate detail:  Please be aware that we cannot exceed a combined passenger weight of 350lb/150kg on our trishaw.  Please read through our Passenger Handbook and Waivers to be printed and signed ahead of time.) We plan on starting our rides from the West end of our route at  Rhododendron Gardens  to the entrance of Tall Oaks Park from Elmwood Ave S at Carlis Place  at the East end of the waterfront trail. We will load our first passenger(s) and begin the ride at 10:00a EAST bound along th...

 For our third year in operation, this was an exciting year for CWAM as we spread our rides between the two Verve facilities in Port Credit, our original home at Port Credit Residences (championed there by Lifestyle Enrichment Manager, Justine Beard) and The Shores of Port Credit west of Mississauga Road also on Lakeshore.  Lifestyle Enrichment Manager, Eryn Perrow, was one of our first passengers in 2024 with her grandmother who is also a resident there.  Both the General Managers of the homes, Parry Lawrence (PCR) and Neil Montalban (SoPC) were also very supportive of our program. With Rakesh co-piloting out of Shores As in 2024, this year we assigned Tuesdays and Thursdays of the week for rides (leaving me a two and a half day work week at the hospital reserving Wednesday evenings for our grandsons!), moving the trishaw between the homes as we worked out which schedule would allow us to provide meaningful coverage without too much shuttling.  We also created alt...

 Earlier in the year I got an email from Jane Williams-Hu, the national co-ordinator for Cycling Without Age - Canada to forward a listing to our mailing list for Ontario Chapters for a (sparingly) used AMI model trishaw that was coming up for a private sale in Ontario. The trishaw was purchased privately by a Brantford businessman to provide rides for his mother, Marybelle, who was in a retirement home in Burlington.  Unfortunately, she passed away earlier this year and the forlorn trishaw named after her was a constant reminder of her passing.  He hoped it could bring as much joy as it brought her and so wanted to pay it forward. As we were discussing the possibility of adding to our fleet, we thought we should put in a bid for this vehicle which was similar to the one we had already acquired directly from the manufacturer and so approached the vendor with an offer of paying $5,000 in cash and providing a tax receipt for the balance of the amount that he had requested ...

 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...