There wasn’t much national or world news in the Tribune when I was in college so local news of little importance made the front pages. That’s how Miss Allie Crews, secretary of the Boone County chapter of American Red Cross, learned that I had passed my senior lifesaving test. There was money in her budget to send someone to the National ARC Aquatic School in Eureka Springs, Ark., and I was probably the only local person on the list. Miss Allie~ asked me to go for extra training in swimming, diving, first aid and water safety so I could assist in the Boone County Chapter’s programs. I therefore became a certified ARC examiner in 1935. Christian College needed a swimming and water safety teacher and employed me a few weeks later. I liked the job and stayed for 32 more years.

One of my lifesaving students brought me a photo story of a man who was drowning in floodwaters in Florida. This businessman was on his way to work and had attempted to drive his truck through water that covered the road. He didn’t make it. His vehicle went under and left him, in suit, hat and tie, in the swirling water literally “grabbing at a straw.” The “straw” to which he clung was his own truck’s spare wheel, which floated out when the truck submerged.

I shared that story with every class. I realized that seeing a floating wheel would make believers of the students so I scrubbed our spare wheel and threw it into the pool and the students got the message immediately. Soon we worked out ways to rescue a drowning person by swimming out and extending the wheel for the victim to grab. Then they waited, as if for a passing boat. Or they kicked and pulled with one arm each~ to slowly return to safety. Sometimes we tied a rope to the wheel so helpers on shore could pull rescuer and victim back.

Two great things about this “life preserver” in the trunk of your car” are there are millions of them around, and no special training is needed for making a safe rescue.

Soon after I saw that photo of the would-be drowning man waiting safely for rescue, I got an old tire and wheel to use for demonstrations for clubs and groups of all ages. The students helped present these programs at their own pool. I challenged my students and the Scouts, 4-H clubs and others with this thought: “If we tell every person in the nation that the spare wheel can prevent drownings, 1,000 lives might be saved every year.” Each year, 7,000 or more people drown. Will you readers also pass the word?

The first time you start to put that spare in a river, lake or pool, you’ll wonder “What if this heavy thing doesn’t float?” A woman once rolled her wheel off a dock into 8 feet of water, and it went right to the bottom! Divers brought it up, and her tire was flat! The air is what makes it float.

When a Christian College girl who didn’t know my name referred to me as “that woman who’s always rolling a spare tire around on campus” I was pleased. I suspect Miss Allie would have been, too.