As a nurse, Dawn Collins quickly learned that everybody has a story.
Now she is taking the same empathy from a career in caregiving to a project she has been working on for the past year, hoping to share stories from seniors while on a bike ride.
Collins is bringing a local chapter of Cycling Without Age to the Comox Valley - a movement started in 2012 by Ole Kassow in Copenhagen, Denmark to help elders get back on their bicycles. Kassow had to find a solution for limited mobility, so he used a trishaw and started offering free bike rides to local nursing home residents.
The idea behind the rides is to take one or two elderly or less-abled people out on a bike ride, be present in the moment, take time to talk, share stories and create relationships while enjoying fresh air and their respective communities.
“I just want to help put seniors who are within four walls out on a bike,” explains Collins. “Research shows that seniors with dementia sleep better, are less aggressive, take less medications (when they are outside) - it’s a win-win.”
Collins has been working for a year to bring the project to fruition within the Comox Valley and is partnering with Ocean Front Village in Courtenay. Along with their recreational therapist, she is working with staff to create a care plan along with families to find residents who would be the riders on the bike.
Volunteer bike peddlers - known as pilots - are carefully vetted and must participate in a 1.5-day-long training session. The trishaw, which is part of a larger e-bike, comes at a cost of $15,000, and was purchased via a donation from the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire and a donation by Canadian Tire Courtenay.
The route would be set around the Courtenay Riverway Walk, which is a 7.9km loop and could be completed on bike in about an hour. Pilots engage with those riding the trishaw and encourage riders to bring partners, children or friends.
Collins is also partnering with the Wiseland Humanitarian Association to assist the organization as it acquires the bike (set for late summer) and grows.
The local chapter is actively seeking volunteers for pilots, co-leaders, pilot trainers and much more.
To learn more about the organization, volunteer or donate, contact Collins at: dawn.collins@cyclingwithoutage.ca.