Flying nuns speed along on bike tour
Danish concept gives seniors thrilling outings on electric trishaws
Outside the senior home, Sister Rosalind Gefre ditched her walker for a bicycle ride — without having to pedal at all.
At 89, the nun can’t bike like she used to, but a new program is helping her and other older adults with limited mobility experience again the thrill of bicycling around St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Wearing a sweater over her black and white habit, Gefre sat in the passenger seat of a trishaw, an electric-assisted bike similar to a pedicab, as she chatted and laughed non-stop with 86-year-old Sister Susan Smith. While Anthony Desnick, 65, of St. Paul pedalled behind them, the women reminisced about life in the convent and marvelled at the stately homes along the Mississippi River and the gushing Minnehaha Falls.
“Your whole attitude changes,” said Gefre, who saw parts of St. Paul she had never visited before on the hour-long ride. “You see the world.” This year, more nursing homes, assisted living and other senior-care buildings across Minnesota — from Rochester to Fergus Falls — are starting the program, Cycling Without Age. Since it began in 2012 in the bike-centric city of Copenhagen, the program has spread to more than 40 countries.
It’s more than just a free bike ride, though. The program is touted as a way to make a difference for older adults, alleviating the epidemic of loneliness through a social outing outdoors.
“Everybody gets the joy of riding a bicycle,” said Desnick, who began the non-profit Cycling Without Age Twin Cities this year, with bike rides at two St. Paul senior homes. “The movement has grown care centre by care centre.”
In Fergus Falls, Minn., Pioneer Care, which has a range of housing options for about 200 residents, will soon start up Cycling Without Age with two trishaws from a state grant and local funding. Steve Guttormson, the marketing and development director, said it gives residents another option to be active outside “at a time when they lose other choices.”
Pedal Fergus Falls, a cycling advocacy group, had the idea for the program, and is organizing many of the trained volunteers to pilot the bikes.
“The bike is hard to miss and definitely different than anything else you see rolling down the street here,” Jake Krohn of Pedal Fergus Falls said, adding that he hopes the threewheeled bikes increase awareness both of cycling and of older adults, seeing “them as a population deserving of attention and admiration.”
In Rochester, Samaritan Bethany also received the state grant and is collecting private donations in hopes of buying two or three trishaws this fall. Dean Stenehjem, who leads the nonprofit’s foundation, said many of the 300 residents are from Rochester and could ride through their former neighbourhoods as they share their life story with volunteers.
“It connects them to the community,” he said.
In the Twin Cities, the Minnesota Veterans Home in Minneapolis was one of the first in the state to start Cycling Without Age last fall with funding from a Bloomington non-profit, Stratis Health.
Staff and volunteers pilot two trishaws almost every weekday at the veterans home, which has more than 300 nursing residents and vets who visit the adult day centre. “I think it takes them out of ... their ordinary routine,” co-ordinator Erin Betlock said.
While most programs start when a centre buys its own trishaw, Desnick is modelling the Twin Cities chapter after the Nice Ride bike system, rotating a trishaw among senior homes. The trishaw, which is fully funded with $12,000 from AARP Minnesota, is piloted by Desnick and nine volunteers — from retirees to a grad student. His goal is to expand the chapter to 10 bikes shared among 30 facilities with 300 volunteers.
While nursing homes and assisted living centres often have their own activities, Desnick said Cycling Without Age is different because it boosts intergenerational relationships.
“It’s just incredibly rewarding,” said Desnick, who had a short-lived retirement after a career as an architect before starting the non-profit this year; he also works as development director for the global Cycling Without Age organization when he’s not piloting the bicycles himself.
On a hot summer day, he pedalled the bike as Gefre and Smith chatted. When they glided over a speed bump, the women lifted their arms above their heads like they were on a roller coaster and waved to passersby like celebrities on a parade float.
“I think it’s crazy people aren’t lined up out the door to go,” Smith said.