SEQUIM — After a full year of no rides and the stop-start season of 2021, the Sequim Wheelers are gearing up for the organization’s fifth season of offering free rides to North Olympic Peninsula residents with mobility issues.
“We are happy and excited for our fifth season,” said Nicole Lepping, founder and former president. “We are really looking forward to being able to provide adaptive bike rides again.”
The COVID pandemic wiped out the nonprofit’s 2020 season, as well as all rides after Aug. 23 last year following a big rise in COVID case rates.
But with case rates, which had fallen to the low-risk category, only recently creeping back into the moderate-risk category, Sequim Wheelers volunteers and board members are looking to get back on the roads and trails.
“The desire for nature and companionship is for most people amplified due to the restrictions we had to experience due to COVID and other circumstances,” Lepping said. “So we all are ready for these simple yet wonderful pleasures.”
The nonprofit Sequim Wheelers is the fifth program of its kind in the U.S. Trained volunteers provide one-hour rides on the Olympic Discovery Trail.
Sequim Wheelers give rides to residents of local nursing home facilities — Sherwood Assisted Living, Home Instead, Sequim Health and Rehabilitation, Dungeness Courte Memory Care, Discovery Memory Care and others — as well as participants of Clallam Mosaic, private individuals and others who are unable to ride a regular bicycle.
All rides, which are free, start at the Dungeness River Nature Center at Railroad Park, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road, Sequim.
Riders don’t have to be from Sequim. Anyone living on the Peninsula — or elsewhere, for that matter, and including children — can participate so long as they schedule a ride beforehand and get to the Dungeness River Nature Center, Lepping said.
“It doesn’t matter where they are from,” Lepping said.
“Anyone who can’t ride a regular bike can ride.”
To schedule a ride, email Bob Fitton, president of the Sequim Wheelers, at volunteers4sequimwheelers@gmail.com or call Lanie Cates, vice president, at 360-809-2182.
Family members or caregivers who want to ride along on their own bicycles are welcome. Volunteers and all participants will follow the county COVID-19 protocols in place at the time.
The Sequim Wheelers fleet includes four bikes — three wheelchair bikes and one which offers the person with challenged mobility the opportunity to pedal or not.
The organization is looking for new volunteers. Training sessions are scheduled this month. To volunteer, email sequimwheelers@yahoo.com, visit sequimwheelers.com or call 360-809-2182.
Fitton, Sequim Wheelers new board president, is a three-year board member, while Lepping will continue to help the organization she founded.
Lepping was inspired to start Sequim Wheelers after seeing an adaptive bike video of Healing Rides, a partner program in Illinois.
“I was instantly touched and inspired to start an adaptive bike program for our community,” she said. “I thought, ‘This would be a beautiful contribution to our community.’”
Sequim Wheelers is funded almost entirely with private donations. Donations are accepted at: Sequim Wheelers, PO Box 276, Carlsborg, WA 98324.
