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Michigan Safety Patroller Wins AAA National's Lifesaving Medal

3 May 1999

Michigan Safety Patroller Wins AAA National's Lifesaving Medal

    DEARBORN, Mich., May 3 -- Michael T. Wiltsie, a 13-year-old
sixth-grader at Ganiard Elementary School in Mount Pleasant, will be in the
national spotlight Tuesday (May 4), when he receives the AAA School Safety
Patrol Lifesaving Medal.  He will be one of seven safety patrollers from
throughout the country to be honored.
    Wiltsie, who lives in Weidman, was manning his patrol post on Adams Street
in Mount Pleasant on Sept. 2, 1998, as children were going home after classes
at Ganiard Elementary.  He was working with Mary Kay Price, an adult crossing
guard.  When Price went into the street to stop traffic, seven-year-old Austin
Lighthart dodged around Wiltsie's outstretched arms to follow Price, just as a
truck turned into Adams.  Wiltsie stepped off the curb, grabbed Lighthart's
backpack and yanked him to safety.
    In a report, Price said of Wiltsie, "It was a good thing he was doing his
job, or someone could have been hurt.  The turning vehicle would have hit
Austin."
    The Lifesaving Medal is the highest honor that can be awarded to a member
of the school safety patrol.  Patrollers who have risked their lives to save
others are nominated by local patrol units.  A national panel of judges
reviews the nominations.  To date, 349 boys and girls from 50 states and the
District of Columbia have received the Lifesaving Medal since the program
began in 1949.
    The first Michigan AAA school safety patrol unit was organized during the
1919-1920 school year at Alger School in Detroit.  Today, more than 500,000
youngsters serve as safety patrollers in communities across the country.  AAA
Michigan sponsors patrol units at more than 1,600 schools throughout the
state.