it to be more storytelling and tracking demonstration than the usual safety lecture.”
The next day I dropped off the groceries at Landon’s apartment and we drove to the school. Ally’s class was still out for recess so we were able to find her on the playground easily.
“Oh! I’m so glad you came!” she said enthusiastically. “And this must be the other half of my search party.”
“Ally, this is Landon Wilson.”
“It’s too bad about your leg,” she sympathized.
When recess was over she gave two sharp blasts with her whistle and the kids all lined up.
“Boys and girls we aren’t going back inside to do math today. Instead my friend is here to tell you about her job so we’ll stay outside a little while longer. Follow me. We are going to find a place where she can show you what she does.”
Ally led the way to a large sandy area of the playground and had the kids all sit cross-legged on the ground. She sat down too and began addressing her class, “Last weekend my husband Peter and I went up to the mountains. You know how I get curious about things. Well, I found out my last name means deer meadow and I was so excited to know my last name had a meaning that I wanted to actually find a deer meadow. I was looking on a map and I saw that up in the nearby mountains there was a campground called Elk Meadows! Peter and I decided to go camping there so we could see if there really were elk in the meadow. We didn’t see any but we did some hiking around and guess what I did.” She waited a short time for a response. Several hands shot into the air. “Devon?”
“What did you see instead?”
“I saw lots and lots of countryside because…I got lost! I know I’ve told you before, how to be careful and never get lost, but I did it anyway. I just kept seeing interesting things until I didn’t know where I was anymore! Then I tried finding my way back. I did that until night came and I had to stop.”
“What did you do, Mrs. Rawleigh?”
“I found a place to sleep and the next day I did what I always tell you to do. I waited for help. And do you know who my help turned out to be?”
“Him and her!” the kids said, making the connection.
“Yes, Cassidy found me. She followed my tracks all the way from Elk Meadows through the mountains. She knew exactly where to look for me because she followed my tracks on the ground. As we were walking back to Elk Meadows we got to talking and I found out she is a very interesting person so I thought you might like to meet her!”
“Good afternoon boys and girls, I’m Cassidy and this is my tracking partner, Landon Wilson. Landon is an EMT. Does anybody know what an EMT is?”
“He’s like a fireman except he doesn’t put out fires.”
Landon smiled at that. “It stands for Emergency Medical Technician. I go with Cassidy on search and rescue calls in case somebody gets hurt. I patch them up and get them the help they need. If they need to go to the hospital I call an ambulance or a helicopter and I go with them to the hospital.”
A hand shot up. “Yes?” I asked.
“What if you get hurt? Then what do you do?” a little girl asked, eyeing Landon’s cast.
“Then Cassidy patches me up and sends me to the hospital.”
“Did you get to ride in an ambulance?”
“No, but I got to ride in a helicopter. I ride in an ambulance every day for my normal job and I ride in helicopters a lot for our search and rescue job.”
“Lucky!” exclaimed several boys at once.
“Cassidy, tell us how you became a tracker,” Ally said.
“Well, when I was five or six years old, about the same age that all you kids are, I was very curious about everything and one of the things that fascinated me was tracks. I would study them and try and figure out what made them and I would follow them to see where they went. I grew up on a quarter horse ranch and there were lots of people on the ranch. I got so used to following tracks that pretty soon I could tell you who on the ranch had made each track. I knew which dog had walked where and I recognized each workhorse’s track by the angle of their horseshoes. When I got a little older my parents let me explore the hills near the ranch too. There I got to track deer, coyotes, foxes and rabbits. When I went to school I tracked the kids on the playground and even animals that had crossed the playground. A time or two I got into big
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