Phil Green Recognition Award

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 exemplary effort to the cause of promoting or furthering cycling or other forms of sustainable transportation in the City of Mississauga over the preceding year. The award is presented annually to deserving Mississauga volunteers. .

In 2009 Phil co-founded First Resource Management Group Inc. and is its CEO.   Phil is co-author of the book misLeadingIndicators: How to Reliably Measure your Business.  He is editor of Enterprise Risk Management: A Common Framework for the Entire Organization.

Phil received his Master of Science degree in statistics from McMaster University and his Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the University of British Columbia. He graduated from the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales, UK. where he completed the International Baccalaureate. He also lived in Paris, France; Rome, Italy and across Canada.

When the acceptance of nominations opened up for submission late last year, there was a flurry of activity announcing it which was spread by the City via the Councillors social media.  It probably came to the attention of Brockville CWA leader JoAnn Bell who has been an inspirational mentor and she contacted me that I should apply.  I explained that it wasn't something I considered to even be in the running for and, in any case, I would need to be nominated by someone else.  I didn't even think it would be worthwhile to assemble a rallying team to try for the award since we had only been in operation for one summer.

I promptly forgot about that brief conversation until this spring when out of the blue I received an email from a legislative co-ordinator from the City of Mississauga, Eglantina Bajac-Gondia, informing me of my winning the Phil Green Award:

Hello Kevin,

 

Congratulations on being selected by the Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee as the recipient of the 2023 Phil Green Award.

 

I would like to schedule a time in April for the award to be presented.  Are you available to attend the April 3, 2024 Council meeting in-person at 9:30am?

 

Location:

Council Chambers, Civic Centre, 2nd Floor

300 City Centre Drive, Mississauga, Ontario, L5B 3C1

 

 

Also, please complete and sign the attached consent form, and email it to me.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

And again, congratulations!

 

Warmly,

Eglantina

Their was no hesitation on my part to confirm my availability and attendance for the presentation and wondered how the City had heard of my fledgling project.  There were many people in the cycling community in Mississauga who had heard about Cycling Without Age - Mississauga and had even trained as pilots with us, one of whom was actually on the MCAC, Vicki Tran.  However, I hadn't even thought of Marah until I had a conversation with James and informed him of my success.  He told me that Marah had contacted him to support her nomination of me and that he, his wife Fiona and Kris Hammel, who has been an ardent supporter from the beginning, all submitted letters of support on my behalf.

I was flabbergasted at the notion that Marah actually was true to her word and felt strongly enough that she nominated me for the award and rallied the support to make it successful.  I owe her a large measure of gratitude for believing in the purpose of Cycling Without Age and elevating the profile of the program in the City of Mississauga with this award.  I also owe a debt of gratitude to the authors of the letters of support and am stoked to be considered along with the other nominees for this award.

After the excitement of winning this prestigious award had settled in, I started wondering what the award ceremony would be like and although I had attended a previous presentation a couple of years ago when Ray Marentette had garnered the award for starting the Port Credit Slow Roll, I wasn't sure if I was expected to make any remarks or could share some of the highlights of the program over the previous year.  Eglantina informed me that generally recipients are given a minute to address the Council at the ceremony and I would have to limit my presentation to that time limit.  I had a powerpoint from a recent presentation I had done for the Streetsville Rotary Club and thought I would adapt it but it was going to be too long.  

In the end, I settled on condensing a two minute video I had created for an inspirational story on how we took Joe, a stroke survivor,  for an impromptu ride and later found out that he was an avid cyclist who had traversed the whole country by bike.  It was an emotional video which gave the Councillors and audience a first hand impression on how a simple bike ride could enhance the life of a senior.

After the video, I was allowed to make a few remarks to council, the text of which is reproduced below

Thank you Councillor Tedjo for this unexpected acknowledgement of the success of our program in enhancing the lives of a segment of our community that has generally been forgotten about by the cycling world.

As you saw from the brief video, many of them were avid cyclists in their day and getting back on spoked wheels brings untold joy to their lives.

Mississauga has a beautiful infrastructure of scenic recreational trails that we can take advantage of but for now have been concentrating our rides on the flat Waterfront Trail in Port Credit where the trishaw is stored.  I would like to acknowledge the partnership we have established with Port Credit Residences through Justine Beard. 

I would also like to thank Marah DiNola for this nomination and her co-conspirators, Kris Hammel and James & Fiona Lobo for their support.  Thank you to the Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee for their acknowledgement of my leadership in bringing this international program to Mississauga, in particular members Vicki Tran and Juelene Stennet.  Vicki's disabled Chihuahua, Zilla, is our official mascot and Vicki has trained as a pilot with us.

Previous Phil Green awardee, Ray Marentette, was instrumental in rekindling that joy in us through the Slow Roll in Port Credit which inspired me to start a Slow Roll in Streetsville.

My hope is that through this award, the profile of Cycling Without Age will be elevated in the city and that it inspires more people to be generous with their time to enhance the lives of seniors in Mississauga.  And if they happen to be cyclists, we welcome them to train as pilots with us.  We also welcome any donations, large or small to our registered charity to continue and grow this program.

None of this would have been possible without the help and support of my wife, Lisette, who taught me to share my joy of cycling with her on our tandem bike.  That sharing of the joy of cycling brought us to Cycling Without Age.

Thank you.

The presentation event was live streamed by the City and downloaded and edited by Kris Hammel to include the pertinent segment of the video, reproduced here:

After the event, the Communications department of the City of Mississauga put out a press release on the ceremony which is here:

Long time Mississauga reporter and personal friend, John Stewart, called me up for an interview when he heard about my award.  We had a great chat over a tea (for him and coffees for us) at the Bakery on Mavis as he gleaned information for an opinion piece he was writing for the online news outlet.  I have embedded it below

For the article above, John asked if there were any testimonials I could provide from seniors who had ridden the trishaw.  I have reproduced the full text of them below

June Tink:  I first met Kevin Saldanha when he began giving trishaw rides to the residents at my home in Port Credit Residences last Spring.

Many of us are not able to get out in the fresh air a lot so it was a pleasure to be taken around the neighbourhood in the trishaw, accompanied by an outrider, and fun to wave at passers by and honk the horn in greeting. Especially enjoyable was the tour around the decorated houses at Hallowe’en. I, and a 98 year old resident, dressed as witches for the trip. On another ride, we came across some cycling police officers who stopped to have a photo taken with us.

Kevin proved to be a great guide and story-teller as we made our way down to the Lake. So much so, that we invited him to come to our Speaker’s Corner and talk about his interesting life.

As you know, Kevin is a veterinarian and I think it is so kind and generous of him to take time out from his work to provide this wonderful, free outing for us oldies. I have found him to be a man of compassion with a great heart and sense of humour. I am so glad he won the Phil Green Award for his contribution to the community; it was well deserved. He and his team of cyclists provide a great service to the elderly and I, for one, can’t wait for the good weather to resume our rides!

Judy Tutty:  Having been a passenger on a tour last summer, I look forward to once again enjoying a ride this summer. As a senior, it is wonderful to get out and about in the local area with commentary on the various highlights, i.e., some artifacts from the St. Lawrence Starch, along the lakefront, over to the harbour, etc.. Walking about is not always easy and this mode of transportation is unique and welcomed. Kevin takes delight in this program and seeing the pleasure with his passengers. It's a short day-trip and showcases the area. An added feature is the horn given to a passenger who announces the arrival of the tricycle as it moves along a path. There are many at my retirement home who consider Kevin a friend and look forward to seeing him. I thank Kevin, for this initiative and to more rides this summer!

I am grateful to everyone involved with this award including and most importantly my wife, Lisette, who has put up with my eccentricity on every project I have embarked upon with blinding passion.