On a recent October day, WMRA reporter Ayse Pirge rode along with Steve Policastro, founder of Winchester’s Cycling Without Age chapter, in a three-wheeled trishaw. The community that uses it, Shenandoah Valley Westminster-Canterbury (SVWC), is a retirement community in Winchester, Virginia. An electric motor helps the volunteer pilot pedal while a passenger rides in front. WMRA published its report on Oct. 30, 2026, but described the outing only as a recent October day; it did not give the ride’s exact date.
The outing is part of a recurring program, not a one-time launch. Volunteers offer residents weekly rides on the SVWC grounds, with the schedule continuing as long as the weather allows. The October report brings together the people around the program: Policastro, SVWC wellness manager Teresa Barton, frequent rider Joan Bronson and volunteer pilot Joanne Leonardis. Their accounts show how one trishaw can make a familiar campus feel different from the front seat.
Policastro’s idea began before the vehicle arrived. He told WMRA that he saw a video about Cycling Without Age in 2023 and decided he wanted to bring a chapter to Winchester, even though he did not yet know how to make it happen. He enjoys riding his own bicycle and wanted to share that experience with people who could no longer ride their own bikes.
SVWC’s June account traces the model to Copenhagen, where social entrepreneur Ole Kassow rented a three-wheeled bicycle and offered a ride to an older neighbor in 2012. The Winchester chapter joined a broader movement built around the same simple arrangement: a volunteer pilot and a passenger riding in front. The local program adapted that idea to a campus residents already know.
A connection with SVWC eventually supplied the missing partner. WMRA reports that after meeting someone who lived at SVWC, Policastro spoke with the community’s CEO, Gloria “Jeannie” Shiley. She had recently heard about the program at an aging conference and wanted a trishaw; Policastro already had volunteers ready to pilot one. In its June 24 program history, the community dates the partnership conversation to late summer 2025. The SVWC Foundation helped fund the first trishaw, while the local chapter brought volunteer pilots and the community provided its campus and residents. The partnership launched in spring 2026 with a ribbon cutting and the arrival of the first vehicle.
SVWC’s launch account said 15 trained pilots would take turns offering rides on weekends. It described residents lining up to try the trishaw and said some who had come to watch decided to take a turn. By June, the community reported that the second and third rides were already booked. Those launch details are a dated record of how the program started, not a count of the current volunteer roster. SVWC’s launch account also said the trishaw would be in motion every Sunday, weather permitting. That was the program’s schedule as of June, not a current count of rides or pilots.
For a passenger, the design makes the ride its own destination. The seat is in front of the pilot, whose pedaling moves the three-wheel cycle along at a relaxed pace. SVWC describes its campus as 175 acres with more than 2.5 miles of natural-surface trails, gardens, meadows and a pond. Its article names meditation, wildflower and resident gardens among the outdoor spaces. The community says the trishaw helps residents whose mobility has changed get back outdoors and reconnect with familiar campus spaces.
The recent WMRA report adds voices from the rides themselves. Barton said residents had responded positively. Bronson, a frequent rider, described the trips as relaxing. Leonardis, one of the pilots, said she sees people settle into the fresh air and enjoy the sun on their faces. These are personal accounts rather than claims about medical effects; the program’s stated purpose is to share an outdoor ride.
The chapter hopes to add a second trishaw so it can expand its offerings. Policastro told WMRA the group had raised about 40 percent of a $25,000 goal as of the report. SVWC’s launch account described the proposed second vehicle as a way to serve older adults in downtown Winchester, beyond the current campus partnership. The fundraising figure is the chapter’s reported progress, not an independently audited total.
For now, the original trishaw keeps making its weekly circuit while the weather holds. The exact October day in Pirge’s report is not specified, but the firsthand ride and interviews document the program operating this month. What began as Policastro’s 2023 idea is now a continuing partnership: volunteers pedal, residents ride together, and the chapter works toward taking the experience to more people in Winchester.
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