Joy Rides for Murravale Residents

THE residents of Murravale are lining up for joy rides on the new Cycling Without Age trishaws.

Di Van-Balen, operations manager for Murravale Retirement Home said it was wonderful to see the residents enjoying themselves.

See video below.

“The residents embraced the idea and within a short time many had been out and about experiencing the wind in their hair, sun on their skin and the sheer joy of revisiting their community,” said Ms Van-Balen.

“It became evident very quickly that many of them would  riding every day if we could provide enough pilots to do it,” she said.

The experience very obviously lifts the moods of the resident and gives them something to talk about in the dining room over dinner; it gives them conversations to have with family when they visit and fosters a sense of belonging,” Di Va-Balen said.

Sue Abbott was inspired to introduce the trishaws to Murravale after experiencing them with her elderly mother in the United Kingdom and David Paradice kindlyonated two trishaws to launch the program locally.

“When you are a cyclist it is the wind on your face, even if it is not in your hair, and it is like being taken back to your childhood it is totally rejuvenating,” said Ms Abbott.

“Often people in nursing homes people spend a lot of time in their rooms and common areas and to have this access is like connecting them back into the community,” she said.

“To go around and notice things, these trishaws bring a lot of joy to everyone, when you see a trike go by you can’t help but smiles so it is fabulous all ’round,” sh said.

“You are going relatively slowly so you can see the world go by and the world sees you go by and it’s really important,” Sue Abbott said.

The trishaws are electric powered to assist with peddling the passengers and taking on the hills of Murrurundi.

Harriet McKillop was the first pilot to use the trishaws and encourages more people in the community to take residents for a ride.

“The residents are lining up to go,” said Ms McKillop.

“There is training to become a pilot and we used our dogs as passengers during the training,” she laughed.

Di Van-Balen said they were especially interested in more men becoming pilots, to take their male residents to the men’s shed and have more ‘boys outings’.

Pilots need to have a current drivers licence and undergo some brief training to ride the trishaws.

To help with the program phone: 02 6546 6668.

Watch two videos below: