The Right to Wind in Your Hair

If you want to know what the launch of a new program looks like, look at Paul Wilkins in the photo above. Arms thrown open. Smile that did not need a script. He has just settled into a brand-new trishaw on the Shenandoah Valley Westminster-Canterbury campus, and what is about to happen next is the whole point of an idea that started in Copenhagen more than a decade ago.

There is a Danish phrase at the heart of that idea: the right to wind in your hair. Everyone, no matter their age or mobility, deserves to feel the breeze on their face, to look out at familiar places from a new vantage point, and to share unhurried moments outdoors with someone willing to pedal.

This spring, that right became a little easier to claim at SVWC. With a ribbon-cutting, a line of curious residents, and a stretch of cooperative weather, SVWC officially launched its partnership with Cycling Without Age and welcomed its first trishaw to the community.

What Is Cycling Without Age?

Cycling Without Age began in 2012, when a social entrepreneur named Ole Kassow rented a three-wheeled bicycle in Copenhagen and offered a ride to an older neighbor he had been passing on his commute. That single ride became a movement. Today, Cycling Without Age operates in more than 40 countries, with 3,500 chapters, 6,000 trishaws, and over five million rides given to older adults around the world.

The premise is unchanged from that first afternoon in Copenhagen. A volunteer pilot, a thoughtfully designed trishaw, and a passenger who might not otherwise be out in the open air. No agenda beyond a slow ride, a good view, and the kind of conversation that tends to happen when two people are moving gently through the same landscape together.

Virginia is now home to at least six Cycling Without Age chapters, and the Winchester chapter is among the newest.

How the Winchester Chapter Came to Be

The Winchester chapter began with one person paying attention. Steve Policastro learned about Cycling Without Age in early 2023 and started the local chapter with more conviction than blueprint. He did not have a clear path to bringing it to life in the Shenandoah Valley, but he had the sense that the right partnership would eventually present itself.

Late in the summer of 2025, it did. A connection at SVWC led to a conversation, the conversation led to a plan, and the plan led to action. Through the generosity of the SVWC Foundation, the community purchased its first trishaw. Steve’s chapter supplies the volunteer pilots, and SVWC supplies the campus, the riders, and the warm welcome.

It is the kind of partnership that works because each side brings what the other needs.

Launch Day on Campus

The rain held off, the trishaw shone in the afternoon light, and residents lined up to see what a ride felt like for themselves. Some climbed in for the breeze. Some came for the company. A few came mostly to watch and ended up signing on for a turn of their own.

Fifteen trained volunteer pilots will now take turns offering rides on the SVWC campus every weekend. The trishaw travels at a relaxed pace, with the passenger seated comfortably in front and the pilot pedaling behind, which makes conversation easy and the view unobstructed. Wooded paths, the campus pond, the gardens, the open meadows. The same 175 acres residents already know, seen from a slightly different angle and a slower speed.

From the response on launch day, it is already clear that weekend afternoons on campus have a new tradition.

Why This Matters in a Life Plan Community

Outdoor experiences are not an extra at SVWC. They are part of how this community is designed. The campus includes more than 2.5 miles of natural surface walking trails, a meditation garden, a wildflower garden, a resident garden, a putting green, a croquet/bocce ball court, and a nature preserve, all woven into the woodlands of the northern Shenandoah Valley.

For many residents, those spaces are part of the daily rhythm of life here. For others, particularly those whose mobility has changed, getting fully back outdoors can feel out of reach. That is exactly the gap a trishaw is built to close. It is not a workaround for limited mobility. It is a return to one of the simplest joys most of us grew up taking for granted. Being in motion, outside, with someone good to talk to.

Research has long linked time outdoors with better mood, better sleep, and better cognitive function in older adults. But anyone who watched the rides on launch day did not need a study to see what was happening. Shoulders relaxed. Conversations opened up. People smiled the way people smile when they have not been on a bike in a long time.

What Comes Next

The launch is only the beginning. Cycling Without Age Winchester has its sights set on a second trishaw, this one dedicated to seniors who live in the heart of downtown Winchester. A community fundraising effort will kick off soon to make that happen.

In the meantime, the trishaw on the SVWC campus is in motion every Sunday, weather permitting, with a roster of fifteen volunteers eager to pedal. The first rides have already happened. The second and third are already booked. And somewhere in Copenhagen, Ole Kassow’s original idea has quietly added one more chapter to its story, this one written in the heart of northern Virginia.

Learn More or Get Involved

Click here to learn more about Cycling Without Age. To find out about life on the SVWC campus, from our walking trails to our wellness programs to our community life calendar, reach out to our team or schedule a visit to our Winchester, Virginia campus. We would be glad to show you around, though we cannot promise the wind in your hair will be on the official tour.