TandemEyes - News and Updates

We are looking for volunteers for our 2025 Season!

10/24/2023

Looking for a meaningful way to support our community?

TandemEyes cycling for adults with partial or total vision loss is a very enjoyable and fulfilling volunteer opportunity supporting human wellness through exercise and friendship with our visually impaired community that would otherwise not experience the freedom and joy of riding a bike.

We are looking for several volunteers for our 2025 season:

Captain is a volunteer rider on the front of the tandem bike riding with a Stoker (a person with vision loss). Click here for more details
Ride Leader is a volunteer rider that leads the group ride. The Leader is responsible for the selecting the route, cancelling the ride due to weather if necessary and ensuring the overall safety of all involved. Click here for more details

2025 TandemEyes Season Details:

Our rides go out Wednesday evenings from 6pm-8pm.
Rides start May 28 and run until Aug 27.

Please email [email protected] if you are interested in joining or have questions!

2023 Tandemeyes Season is Fast Approaching!

3/10/2023

We are excited to begin our TandemEyes season with rides every Monday and Wednesday from 6-8pm starting Monday, May 15 until Wednesday, August 30th, 2023.

Click here to learn more about volunteer positions or being a stoker (individual who is blind or partially sighted).

TandemEyes Orientation is mandatory for returning and new members and is scheduled for Saturday, April 29th from 9am-11am at Princess Gardens.

Please email [email protected] with any questions and or to register to join our group.

Thank you to Lily!

8/18/2022

We are so appreciative to Lily for her hard work helping us refurbish a new bike and making the new handlebars for another bike! We are so fortunate to have such skill, talent and kindness in our membership!!

‘My heart wants to give back’: Blind cyclist due in Peterborough Aug 12 to raise stem cell awareness By Bill Hodgins Reporter Wed., July 27, 2022 Peter

8/5/2022

A few years back, a rare stem cell transplant gave Amber Needham her sight back. She’s doing her part now in the hope that awareness can help others get the same help she received. Needham, and good friend Mike Rousseau, of St. Thomas, ON., are on a provincial tandem cycling trip, which will see them hit Peterborough around Aug. 12.

They’ve set a fundraising goal — $80,000 — which will be used to start an ocular stem cell database and registry. However, the trip is also about raising awareness for something she says should be more easily attainable if more people were aware of the need and the ease of donating.

On July 23, the pair spoke to Peterborough This Week from the shores of Lake Mindemoya on Manitoulin Island. Their trek saw them leave St. Thomas on July 4 before hitting centres like Chatham, Goderich and Tobermory. From Manitoulin, they will head to Sudbury, east to North Bay and Ottawa, then swing down to the community en route to North York on Aug. 20, where they will meet up with the doctor who helped restore Needham’s site.

They’re on a tandem bike because of a fluke accident. After her eye repair, Needham was injured again and could barely see. “I'm doing this too because my heart wants to give back to the hospital that took care of me,” she said. Her journey to sight loss began eight years ago. “I had pristine vision until 2014,” the 58-year-old says. She was using an eye lubricant and says it had been the subject of a government recall — a matter that she wasn’t aware off. In two months, the retired day-spa owner had lost her sight. She had begun a career as a fitness trainer before losing her vision. Fortunately, she says, she had been referred to Dr. Clara Chan, a renowned specialist in cornea, cataract and refractive surgery.

Two years after the eye lubricant incident, she had a stem cell transplant that gave her full vision again. A freak kitchen accident, where she was splashed in the eye with liquids from a compost bucket, caused a fungal growth that wiped her vision away again. “By the grace of God, the fungal infection ceased to grow. They were able to get it eradicated.” She has glaucoma now and cannot see peripherally. But she’s still grateful to have some vision and is eager to help Chan in quest to create a stem cell registry for people with vision problems. “ … So that the patients like myself do not have to go out in search of their own donors.” With the system in place, donors would see a piece of their cornea removed, Needham says, but it heals quickly. “The donor heals within a week and just goes on about their life. So, behind this registry, they would be fully aware of what the requirements are, what the responsibility is, and it takes the stress away from the donor as well.”
She is committed to raising $80,000, which would go directly to the ophthalmology department and specifically to Chan’s registry project. Needham is also raising funds through the sale of her book — The Blind Girl Sees — which is available through Friesen Press for about $24.

2022 TandemEyes Season in Full Swing!

7/27/2022

We are so thankful to be riding again after two pandemic interrupted seasons.
We are thrilled to welcome new members as our team grows this year with both stoker and volunteer positions.
Thanks to PCC President Sue Carlson and the entire PCC membership (Peterborough Cycling Club) who have been especially supportive and inclusive in their events, ride & bbq and for volunteering with TandemEyes this year. We are so appreciative!
We welcome any interested volunteers for next year to contact us anytime at [email protected]

2022 Orientation - Great to see everyone!

5/9/2022

Thank you to all new Tandemeyes members and all returning members for attending our Orientation on April 30, 2022. We were pleased to have Sue Carlson from Peterborough Cycling Club join us!

2022 TandemEyes Season - We're Back!

4/1/2022

We are beyond excited to announce that we will be starting our 2022 TandemEyes Season on Monday, May 16, 2022 after a 2 year pause due to the pandemic!

Orientation will take place April 30, 2022 from 9:00-11:30 am

Our rides will take place starting May 16 until Aug 27, 2022
Monday & Wednesday Evening 6pm-8pm
Saturdays 9am-11am (dependant on availability)

We welcome new members to volunteer and also those with
partial or total vision loss to participate!

Phone it Forward Program

12/8/2020

With millions of smartphones gathering dust each year as users upgrade to newer models, Phone It Forward gives Canadians a unique opportunity to donate their old phones, receive a tax receipt, and empower people who are blind in the process.

Learn more about donating a mobile phone to CNIB

CNIB wants to ensure that anyone who is blind or partially sighted can benefit from safety, independence, and enablement that a smartphone, along with the proper training, can provide. If you have sight loss, live in Canada and are registered with the CNIB Foundation, you are eligible for a free smartphone through Phone It Forward.
If you would like to register with the CNIB Foundation for Phone It Forward or other programs, please call 1-833-554-5020.

Team TandemEyes Raise $1030.00 for Cycle for Sight

6/22/2020

We are thrilled to note that three members of the TandemEyes Team participated in Cycle for Sight to raise funds to support vision research! Leslie Yee, Darcy Wefers and Jennifer Meek participated virtually and collectively raised $1055.00 for vision research!

Cycle for Sight nationally raised $361,124.00 for vision research!!

Thank you for everyone's support for this great cause!

Cycle for Sight Virtual 2020 - June 20, 2020 Register Now to Participate Virtually

6/10/2020

Cycle for Sight Virtual will happen on Saturday, June 20th to raise awareness and funds for vision research. Here are the key points:

There are no barriers to participating: free registration, no fundraising minimums, anyone and everyone can participate from their own home – no special equipment is required
We have cycling and other Paralympian athlete ambassadors participating and cheering everyone on this year. Learn more about them here.

Ways to participate:

1.Join the Cycle for Sight indoor live broadcast on Sat. June 20th beginning at 11 am ET and participate in the opening ceremonies and custom indoor cycling program. And if you don’t have access to an indoor bike, then join the indoor fitness and yoga program – no special equipment required.
2. Or choose your own route and cycle safely outdoors on June 20th. Participants may also like to run, walk, or roller blade – they can select any athletic pursuit this year!

Learn more about how to participate here.

Our goal is to have as many people as possible register for free to Cycle for Sight, and if each raises a little or self donates, then we’ll reach our fundraising goal to find treatments and cures for blinding eye diseases.

Sponsor us in Cycle for Sight

Join Our Cycle for Sight Team