Matthew Stepaniak just wanted to give his mom a bike ride and Darren Dobier just wanted to bring more differently abled individuals to enjoy nature. .
Now Stepaniak and Dobier have given hundreds of rides throughout the area for those who need it most.
Their non-profit organization, Limitless Cycling, is a free service that brings piloted adaptive bicycles to assisted living facilities, community centers and to individuals that cannot access these bikes.
The organization started in 2019, but with COVID-19 restrictions they restarted just last year. In their relaunch, Limitless Cycling raised $69,000 in grants and donations.
On average, the adaptive bicycles cost $15,000 each and required trained individuals to pilot them for their riders. Each bike is customized based on physical limitation needs for every type of passenger.
“[We] want to be able to get as many rides as we possibly can to show our community what inclusivity we want to have,” Stepnaiak said, “We accept the challenge.”
The work of Stepaniak, Dobier, volunteers and from their sponsors at River Valley Trails have earned a long list of recognition. From news coverage by WCCO, Pioneer Press to earning donations from AARP and local businesses, Limitless Cycling has quite the celebrity status.
Despite their fame, the folks at Limitless Cycling commit to their humility and to the connections beyond the ride.
“The ride is only one side of things,” Stepaniak said.
These rides open up conversations between folks that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible without the work of Limitless Cycling.
These rides bring about “remembering” and “nostalgia,” he noted.
“We want this to be meaningful, never remedial and it’s not just the physical activity, but also through the social activity of being able to close some intergenerational gaps of our seniors and the younger generation.” he said.
The 10 to 20 minute rides Limitless Cycling holds is the hosting place for folks to share their stories and for friendships to bloom.
“I had a couple last week. I think the wife was pretty much non verbal, hardly able to speak. And the husband was like a chatterbox. He talked all the time. And at first I thought he was talking to his wife, but then I realized [he was talking to me, so] he was just going on and on. The other thing that the woman who was kind of nonverbal when a breeze would come by or we’d hit a little bump, she had a response. So you could tell she was having a reaction to it, enjoying it, it was a fun thing for her and it was [fun] for them together to experience that, you know, [it] was really special,” John Duntley, a member of the board of directors for the River Valley Trails, said.
They commit themselves to hosting rides at one facility all day long, Stepaniak explained.
“We might be on site for two hours. We might be on site for five hours and we’re ready for that because we’re only doing one a day. We never want to feel that we have to rush to get to the next one because if we feel that, residents are going to feel that, their facility is going to feel that way [and] we don’t want that,” he said.
Once the ride is over, the experience doesn’t stop. Taking the time to play a competitive cribbage game, continue to hear stories and hold conversations with folks are all part of the Limitless ride.
In their future, they want their organizational model to be replicated throughout the area so more people can host these experiences.
An indoor facility is also on the drawing board so these rides can happen all year long.
“[We] want to grow 20 percent every year,” Stepaniak said.
Improving, whether it be in the smallest or in the biggest of ways, is always on the minds for the folks at Limitless Cycling.
Article Credits: Star Observer