People have been given an additional chance to get out and about following the launch of the new Auchterarder Trishaw project.
The volunteer-led group – part of the wider Cycling Without Age Scotland movement – has already started taking residents from local care homes on rides around the town.
Poignantly the vehicle is named ‘Rowen’ after the late Rowen Ross, who died in October last year at the age of 54.
The mum-of-two, from Aberuthven, was a keen supporter of Cycling Without Age and was instrumental in setting up the project locally.
Rowen befriended the late Norman Ridley, another Cycling Without Age Scotland champion, when she was working for Marks and Spencer in Perth.
She became a ‘pilot’ for the Perth chapter, taking older people on trips around the Fair City.
Her late father, Johannes Surkamp, who founded Auchterarder’s Ochil Tower School, became something of a guinea pig during the Covid-19 lockdown as she sought to set up a chapter in the Lang Toon and borrowed a trishaw to undertake outings.
The new Auchterarder branch – which launched on Saturday, September 21 – has 11 trained pilots at the moment, although more are keen to join soon.
Gordon McLeay, who heads up the new group, said everyone connected to the project was pleased to be continuing Rowen’s good work.
Cycling Without Age Scotland now has 140 trishaws in 80 chapters across the country – including in Comrie.
Friends of St Margaret’s Hospital, Auchterarder and District Community Trust and Auchterarder Community Sport and Recreation group all helped to fund the trishaw, along with Rowen’s family.
Contact Gordon via [email protected] for more information.