About a year ago, I saw a piece on the news that fascinated me. It was about an organization based in Denmark called “Cycling Without Age” CWA consists of volunteer bike riders who sign up to use a CWA approved “trishaw” and take elderly shut-ins out and around their community. For many they spend all their later years indoors, playing Bingo and watching TV. This opportunity to get out and be taken for a ride fills them with joy and excitement and is highly therapeutic, as I saw them in this news piece smiling and waving and laughing.
So I wrote to CWA in Denmark and told them I have not seen any trishaws in NYC, a place that would be natural for it, with our many bikers and volunteers and especially our countless elderly shut-ins. They told me they have a presence in 40 states and 100 countries . . . but not in New York City. . . and they made me the President of the New York Chapter of CWA.
Thankfully, another New Yorker, Chris Lawrence, a Pastor in East Harlem who works with a lot of elderly, also wrote and they made him Co-President! The two of us together have gotten CWA Manhattan off to a good start, and have purchased three used trishaws and recruited about 10 volunteer bikers. We got the NYC Department of Education to recognize High School bikers as fulfilling their community service requirements by taking our senior shut-ins for rides!
We have so far focused our bike rides on Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays. We have made contacts with the Martin Luther King Towers in Harlem and the Vista Center for Seniors in Spanish Harlem. Chris and I, and our volunteer bike riders go for rides around their neighborhood and especially in Central Park. Take a look: CWA in Central Park
But we need your help! We have to purchase the trishaws . . . and pay for insuring them . . . and find parking spaces for them . . . and find bikers and riders . . . and on and on. So how can you help?
If you’re a biker, you can sign up with us, be taught how the use the trishaw, and take our seniors out for a ride now and then!
And most critically, we need financial help! We have to buy and insure the trishaws. We’re looking for a 4th trishaw now!
Please dig deep and make a fully tax-deductible contribution!. You’ll be making New York a better and more lively place to live for so many people that our world often forgets. You’ll be remembering them in the most delightful way, and you’ll have fun too! Click here to donate: CWA Donation
