Cycling Without Age - Mississauga

 While we were waiting for our trishaw to arrive, I was posting it's progress on a Facebook page I had created in 2019 when Jane Williams Hu visited Mississauga with a trishaw and we were able to showcase it to our ex-mayor Mme Hazel McCallion.  We took the opportunity to take a few pictures at the event which I use as the cover picture of the Facebook page for Cycling Without Age - Mississauga.  Up to the creation of this blog, that was the only other online presence we had for the fledgling project.   Jane sent me some documents outlining the responsibilities of the chapter and it's dedication to giving free rides to its patrons.  My experience with the Facebook fundraiser and the questions it raised.. .one being if this was going to be Hazel McCallions personal vehicle.. got me to acknowledge that if it was going to succeed, we would need to create a non-profit company to look after the financing of the project.  I was warned off trying to bite off ...

 I couldn't contain my excitement on finding a program that was such a perfect fit to my concept that I hadn't heard of it before.  It was exactly what I was looking for and felt that it would be a perfect complement to our existing Slow Roll group that I was hoping for the same excitement when proposing the program to local retirement residences.   I had first hand information on the conditions and activities in a local upscale retirement residence since my mother-in-law had been a resident of one for a few years since moving there first for respite care after her husband was discharged from hospital and then for convalescence after major surgery.  I knew that their activities director was in charge of activities and that there were many (prior to COVID) that involved bringing in entertainers, barbeques, outings to the mall and restaurants etc.  So naturally I thought this would be a great fit.  But I was wrong as the reception was luke warm at best....

 As I started searching for ways to give seniors and possibly disabled people a way to enjoy the excitement and fresh air of a cycle ride I learned that several years ago, a Dane had the same idea and used a transportation trishaw to give rides to seniors in Copenhagen.  It was so wildly successful that he created a program to formalize the training of pilots, the standards that he wanted to uphold and the dissemination of helpful information from fund raising for the purchase of the vehicle to insurance programs that would underwrite the inherent risk whenever seniors are involved with activities. The following is taken from https://cyclingwithoutage.org/olekassow/ ===== Ole Kassow , Founder of Cycling Without Age, is a changemaker and a social entrepreneur who believes in challenging conventional thinking and in inspiring people and organizations to create a better world through focus on purpose, happiness and kindness. Ole lives in Copenhagen, Denmark and he received t...

 Cycling has always been an interest of mine since I bought a GIANT hybrid bicycle a decade ago in an effort to put in more low impact exercise into my lifestyle. However, riding alone was not always appealing and I was never fit enough to join the spandex crowd.  I would ride around the neighbourhood alone and was interested in expanding my knowledge of the growing recreational cycling infrastucture being developed in Mississauga. A chance opportunity on holiday in New Orleans set me on another trajectory.  While on a visit to this beautiful historic city at the mouth of the Mississippi in the Southern US we had the opportunity to rent a tandem cycle to tour around the historic sights which were mostly below sea level.  I didn't realize that much of New Orleans is protected from the Mississippi by levees built along it's banks and pumping stations along it keep the seepage from accumulating by draining it through canals back to river.  So the flat land was idea...