Watch above: An Edmonton mother says she’s shocked by how many people came to her aid when she was stranded on Whitemud Drive Wednesday morning. As Eric Szeto reports, a local radio station also helped her out.
EDMONTON — An Edmonton mother hopes she can reconnect with the people who rushed to her aid Wednesday morning after she was left stranded on the side of Whitemud Drive.
Crystal Manuel was on her way to work, with her two-year-old daughter in the car, when one her tires blew. After trying to change the tire herself, and breaking the tire iron, she called for roadside assistance.
“They said it would be up to two hours to wait,” Manuel said Wednesday evening.
“I was crying. I called my friend and I was in hysterics. It was horrible,” she said. “I am a single mother and did not have anyone else to help me.”
Needing to get her daughter to daycare and herself to work, Manuel said she didn’t know what to do. So she sent a text message to local radio station HOT 107 in hopes they would put the word out.
“Natural instinct was, ‘We’ve got to help,'” said Lisa Evans, morning host on HOT 107. “We got on air instantly, Nicole and I, and we said, ‘If anyone’s driving down the Whitemud we need someone to help this woman.”
Within minutes, there were upwards of 20 people stopped on the side of the road offering to help.
“Text messages were just flooding in, people were calling the station,” said Evans. “The beauty about radio is we have this amazing channel that we can reach out to listeners and people in our community who want to help.”
Manuel says she was amazed by the number of people who stopped to lend a hand.
“I was in awe,” said Manuel. “People were coming and saying, ‘We heard you on the radio, can we help you? I’ll take you to work, I’ll give you coffee.’ Just trying to get me off the road and into a safer area.”
With all the commotion and needing to get to work, Manuel forgot to get phone numbers from the people who helped her. She’d like to be able to to thank them for saving her from what could have been a much worse morning commute.
“If I could find you I would buy you coffee,” Manuel said.
With files from Eric Szeto, Global News.
Comments