VANCOUVER – Lorraine McKendry remembers the freedom of childhood bike rides in Calgary, when she and her friends would set out during summer vacation: destination unknown.
“Your parents didn’t know where you were. You just got to go on your bike, with a lunch, and be home for supper,” McKendry recalled. “We lived at a lucky time.”
Decades later, she is getting a chance to feel some of that freedom again.
McKendry is among the many Vancouver seniors hitching rides with Cycling Without Age, a volunteer-powered charity that gives older adults the opportunity to get outside on three-wheeled e-bicycles – also known as trishaws – even when they can no longer pedal themselves.
The organization’s trained volunteers, known as pilots, pedal seniors and their loved ones around Vancouver’s parks, seawall and scenic neighbourhoods on specially designed trishaws.
The rides, as McKendry can attest, are about more than cycling.
Cycling Without Age says its goal is to help seniors reconnect with the outdoors, their communities and other people. The organization operates from May through October, with rides arranged through care homes, senior organizations or by seniors living independently.
The organization currently has about 80 volunteers in Vancouver, many seniors themselves who have recently retired. But not all of them.
“We have teachers, we have physicians, we have police officers. We have a lot of pilots and retired flight attendants,” said Jake Winn, executive director of Cycling Without Age Vancouver.
The program has become increasingly popular. In July, about 750 seniors took part in rides in Vancouver, with dozens of care homes already on the waitlist.
“Our bikes are booked Monday through Sunday, morning and afternoon, every single week.” Winn said. “We still can’t meet the demand for the rides.”
Winn said the rides can help combat the isolation that can accompany aging.
“There’s a huge joy in just being outside and seeing people,” he said. “Everyone feels like royalty.”
Lisa Wong is one of the volunteers helping make that happen. For her, the reward is bringing joy to people she feels society often forgets.
“Just that sense of feeling alive again,” Wong said. “It’s so heartwarming. Like, I come back from every ride just with this warmth in my heart.”
Cycling Without Age Vancouver relies on volunteers, fundraising and grants to keep the program running. It is also hoping to purchase more trishaws (at a cost of $25,000 each) and secure more storage space within the city.
For McKendry, all the work that goes into offering the program has helped her travel back in time. “I have these wonderful people who are letting me have that feeling again and I can’t thank them enough,” she said.
