Eyecycle Colorado

sarcastically asked the wife "What do you need a bicycle for you are blind." This statement struck the judge as unfeeling and harsh. The judge listened carefully to the answer wherein the wife explained that just because she had lost her sight didn't mean that she still didn’t want to enjoy things in life like riding a bicycle and that she had found a bicycle shop that rented tandem bicycles and she hoped to be able to ride on the back of a tandem at least once month. That statement remained in the judge's mind and after the case was over the judge decided she wanted to donate a tandem bicycle to a Colorado organization which would use the bicycle to provide blind or visually impaired people the opportunity to ride on the back of a tandem. That proved to be more difficult than she thought. After contacting several local bicycle clubs and local chapters of organizations for the blind, all of whom were not interested in doing this she had just about given up. Then one Sunday morning while reading USA Weekend, a supplement to the Denver Post, she saw a small article about a group in California called Eyecycle which rode tandem bicycles with the blind. She called them up and asked whether they had a Colorado chapter because she wanted to donate a tandem bicycle if they did. Their answer was "No we don't have a Colorado chapter, but you can start one." So late in the fall of 1993 Judge Polidori got together a small group of people who worked together to form Colorado Eyecycle. She found an anonymous donor who provided $10,000 of seed money. Part of that money was used to purchase 6 tandem bicycles (which were provided at cost by the manufacturers). The first ride was held in the spring of 1994 and Colorado Eyecycle has been riding ever since. Colorado Eyecycle is still going strong although the California Eyecycle has long been defunct. Then, as now, Colorado Eyecycle owes its existence to the many dedicated volunteers without whom this organization would not exist.