Nancy Gray, Cycling WIthout Age Hamilton/Burlington

 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 study 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 rides was along a tried and tested route where the passengers would be brought down to the Hamilton harbour to ride along a flat trail along the waterfront which is safe and predictable away from other traffic.  Their meeting point was conveniently located beside a popular Williams Cafe on the dock.  We decided to drive down in our Smart EQ after finding out that we could top up our battery at a free charger provided by HOPA walking distance from Williams.

Nancy, Lorraine, Dawnelle and Kaitlyn were taking a short break between rides when they found out that their next ride had cancelled and so had an hour or so to chat about their chapter and what got them involved.  After gabbing for a bit, Nancy had to rush off to monitor their new (second!) TRIObike Taxi riding out of a Chartwell Christopher Terrace in Burlington, generously donated by a single anonymous donor! Lorraine offered to give Lisette and myself a taste of the ride they do around the Hamilton harbour and although we didn't do the full 45min ride, we got a good taste of 'wind in our hair' with Dawnelle ably spotting for us, pointing out hazards and warning pedestrians of our approach.

That experience confirmed that I was on the right track with my project and hope to have as much success in Mississauga as they had in Hamilton.  Since they had partnered with an existing bicycle Charitable Organisation, New Hope Community Bikes, they were able to access charitable funding and issue tax receipts which is a big help for groups like ours.  While chatting with them, I realized that we may have a partner in another group that had recently opened a shed in Mississauga for disabled stokers riding on tandem bicycles called Trailblazers Tandem.  Although just a new member of their organization, I felt that our aims coincided but would have to wait for their president to return from vacation to offer my proposition.

In the meantime, I went ahead and contacted the TD bank to open a Business account in the name of Cycling Without Age - Mississauga.