Cycling Without Age - Mississauga

 While visiting Vancouver enroute an Alaskan cruise, I decided at the last minute to make contact with local CWA chapters.  I found two, one of which was just across False Creek from the hotel we were staying at downtown Vancouver on Hornby Street. I sent out emails to both via their contact information on their websites, both hosted by CyclingWithougAge.org, leaving my contact information.  Next morning I got a call from a deep voice identifying himself as "Ian from Cycling Without Age".  I quickly recognized him as Ian Rose-Innes, the driving force behind the North Shore chapter of CWA and found out that he was going to be out all morning doing rides and other related work for the affiliate.  He promised to contact me when he was heading back to the 'Shipyards' a trendy neighbourhood on the north shore of Vancouver harbour where they store their trailer with two trishaws in a secured underground parking garage leased to them by the owner of the Shipyards. Righ...

 While looking up CWA affiliates in Ontario, the website of the Lanark County Cycling Without Age website stood out for it's simplicity and it's content.  As I was interested in creating a website independent of the free page offered by the parent CWA.org I found their format on WordPress impressive. I had contacted a childhood friend in India who runs his own web publishing business about the possibliity of creating a website for us and his recommendation was to use WordPress as a platform for ease of editing and adding content after the template had been created.  As there was no names I could Google associated with the site, I used their web submission form to send in a message in the hope that someone would see it and get in touch with me. The following morning I got a call from Treff Peters who was Lanark County affiliate and the instigation behind the Lanark County program.  As a retiree with a lot of contacts, he mentioned that he went through the fundraising ...

 When I found out that there were several other chapters of CWA in Ontario, I decided to try to contact as many as I could and discuss their journey to learn from them.  I tried to contact the Toronto affiliate who was featured in a CityNews article and interview that I found online but other than accepting my friend request online, have not had any other luck. On the other hand, I sent a message to CWA Brockville and got a call back from JoAnn Bell the very next morning.  Fortunately it was a Saturday and after having worked Saturday mornings for the last 30 years, COVID had taught me that a 5 day week was beneficial to my mental health.  Not wanting to disturb a slumbering spouse, I snuck out of the bedroom to chat with JoAnn. She was refreshing to talk to and we could have gone on for hours.  Several things about that conversation were enlightening.  The thought of CWA was implanted when she was looking after her ailing mother and wished she could take h...

 Looking through all the Canadian chapters of Cycling Without Age, I realized we had a successful chapter in our neighbourhood and went on to find out a bit more about it. Nancy Gray and Jill Axisa, both employees of McMaster University in Hamilton had a similar idea several years ago and had some researchers at the University do a feasibility stud y and create an operating manual on starting a 'Care Home Model' chapter of CWA.  The researchers found that there was a need for the service locally and created a handbook for those wanting to start a chapter.  Nancy and Jill managed to convince their former employer to donate $7500 towards their cause and with a matching donation from the Hamilton Oshawa Port Authority were able to purchase their first TRIOBike Taxi trishaw from Copenhagen Cycles. I was able to contact Nancy Gray and after an hour long telephone call, pledged to meet her at one of her rides in Hamilton.  Nancy had decided that the best way to offer...