Oshkosh — It’s been a while since Ruth McKone went for a bike ride.
The retired school secretary figures it was about seven decades ago. But last week McKone, 94, tooled around Oshkosh sitting beside her neighbor, 90-year-old Dorothy Youngwirth, while a volunteer pilot pumped the pedals of a bicycle rickshaw.
The Lutheran Homes of Oshkosh residents giggled and chatted as the wind whipped through their hair, waving at folks as they traveled at the speed of a couple miles and a couple stories an hour.
“It was a nice ride all the way around the block,” said a rosy-cheeked Youngwirth. “I’m really happy I did it.”
McKone can’t recall bicycling past her early 20s. Too busy. But breathing in fresh air on a windy overcast day, she said it felt great to get back in the saddle.
“I waited on people all my life. It’s nice to be waited on for once,” McKone said.
Lutheran Homes raised money to buy three bicycle rickshaws through Cycling Without Age, a program started in Denmark two years ago that pairs volunteer cyclists with nursing home residents. The seniors get a chance to go for a bicycle ride and get out in their communities while volunteer pilots get exercise, listen to stories and learn history, in effect gaining new sets of grandparents.
It’s a brilliantly simple idea. Perhaps that’s why Cycling Without Age has swiftly become a growing phenomenon around the world — 500 bicycle rickshaws in a dozen countries, mainly Europe, but also in New Zealand, Singapore and Chile.
Oshkosh among first in U.S.
Last week, Oshkosh became the first Cycling Without Age outpost in the United States along with programs starting in Connecticut, New York and California. So far Oshkosh is the only location in Wisconsin.
“We didn’t know if people would embrace it. But the joy of bicycling is thriving here,” Cycling Without Age co-founder Ole Kassow said Tuesday as he helped roll out the program in Oshkosh. “Seeing all the smiles of the faces here in the elders — I hope to spread that throughout the world.”
Kassow and co-founder Dorthe Pedersen were in Oshkosh on Monday and Tuesday to train volunteer pilots to use the rickshaws, which cost about $5,000 and feature battery-assisted pedaling, lights and covering to keep passengers dry and warm.
So far there’s no shortage of volunteer pilots. Half a dozen Oshkosh police officers have volunteered, and 15 people signed up after a presentation on Monday at Winnebago Bicycle, which will provide rickshaw maintenance. Oshkosh police are helping map routes to safely travel to sights around the city so riders can visit parks, waterways and ice cream stands.
Kassow came up with the idea while cycling in Copenhagen, a city where practically everyone rides a bike. On his way to work he noticed an old man sitting on a park bench. Kassow knew people frequently stop cycling as they got older but missed the freedom found with a bicycle.
So he rented a rickshaw and showed up at a Copenhagen nursing home offering to give rides. One woman took him up on his offer. She told her friends and the next day the nursing home called Kassow asking if he’d come back. He rented more rickshaws and asked for volunteers. Word spread. The movement got a name. More nursing homes in more cities and countries got rickshaws and volunteer pilots.
Fundraising in Oshkosh
Before the snow falls in Oshkosh, Lutheran Homes will schedule regular rides on routes ranging from one to five miles and then start them up again in the spring, said Gerard Bodalski, vice president of health care services. Bodalski heard about Cycling Without Age through a newsletter on healthy aging and watched Kassow’s September 2014 TED talk online.
Intrigued by the idea, Bodalski helped form a group with community partners to raise money for the program. Grants and donations came from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, veterans groups, charities and individuals.
“Everybody has ridden a bike. What this makes you feel is young again,” said Bodalski.
Bodalski mentioned the program to resident Eugene Sonnleitner, 85, a retired Oshkosh dentist and former Navy combat medic who took the initiative and reached out to local veterans groups to raise money.
“I’m sitting here with nothing to do. What can we do to occupy our time aside from bingo?” said Sonnleitner, adding that reaction to the bicycle rides at first was mixed. “Some initially said ‘I wouldn’t get in one.’ The closer it got and we talked it up, the more people got excited and the enthusiasm grew. Now we’ve got something to look forward to.”
Heather Paalman, a UW-Eau Claire health care administration student, is one of the volunteer pilots.
“Just to be able to help the elders get outside is great. They have so much to say,” said Paalman, who is on a one-year internship at Lutheran Homes. “The memories you hear while riding the bicycle are extraordinary.”
For more information or to start a Cycling Without Age program, go to cyclingwithoutage.org.
