Bentonville Organizations join forces to help seniors, create first trishaw pedicabs manufactured in the US

Green House Cottages of Northwest Arkansas, Gnargo Bike Co., and the Bentonville Moves Coalition have worked together to create the first trishaw pedicabs manufactured in the United States, all the help local senior citizens.

This project was a result of the Memories in Motion initiative which uses trishaw pedicabs to allow senior citizens the opportunity to ride trails with the help of volunteers, who operate the pedicab. Generally, these pedicabs are manufactured overseas in places such as Copenhagen, Denmark. Green House Cottages of NWA is the first long-term care facility in Northwest Arkansas to provide these pedicabs for residents.

“We’re always looking for ideas to change long-term care and get the elders out into the community,” said Amanda Kinyon, Executive Director of Green House Cottages of NWA, “So to get them out on the trails regardless of if they are wheelchair bound, if they have ailments where they’re not able to mobily get around anymore, to have those to let them ride on is just a great opportunity for them.”

After helping start the Memories in Motion initiative at Green House Cottages, Jan and Dan Carr reached out to the Bentonville Moves Coalition, seeking a community mini grant to help them expand the program.

“They were wanting to grow that program and purchase another bike. And we’re curious of whether our mini grants could help facilitate that,” said Jessica Pearson, Coalition Manager for Bentonville Moves, “when we started visiting with them about various options, it was so apparent that it was going to be very expensive to get one of these custom pedicabs shipped from overseas.”

Seeking an alternative, they reached out to Gnargo Bike Co., a bike manufacturer based in Bentonville, for help. They asked if it would be possible to build one of these pedicabs locally, and Gnargo took on the challenge. After working with the Carrs and residents at Green House Cottages, and creating three prototypes, they had the fourth and final iteration.

“We are the only bike manufacturer in Northwest Arkansas and that is that for all bikes.” said Zach Springer, co-founder of Gnargo Bike Co., “and they’re definitely not making this bike in the United States at all.”

Springer also said Gnargo plans to continue manufacturing these trishaw pedicabs as part of their catalog.

You can find more information about Memories in Motion here.