TORONTO THE GOOD STILL EXISTS, SAYS ‘COACH’ DON MCCULLOCH WHO WAS RESCUED BY A TMU STUDENT AFTER 88-YEAR-OLD BALA RESISDENT FALLS ON CITY ESCALATOR
JACK HUTTON Special to MuskokaTODAY.com
BALA — A mutual friend of ours, Don McCulloch, a long-time Bala Legion member —
better known as “Coach” — will not soon forget taking the escalator on the Toronto subway exit at Yonge and St. Clair last week.
On the way up the 88-year-old reached for his cell phone, lost his balance and took an incredible “four head-over-heels tumble” before ending up lying sprawled at the bottom of the moving steps.
The escalator carried him back to the top where he was unable to get back on his feet.
For several minutes, Thursday Nov. 27, he laid waiting for someone to notice him and offer help.
But people running up the stairs parallel to the escalator were in too much of a hurry to stop and assist him, he says.
Meanwhile, he could feel the moving escalator still trying to grab him.
The time was 11:15 a.m., just a little before the noon rush.
That’s when a young woman came into the building with her bicycle.
She leaned the bike against something and rushed toward Don, asking how she could help.
Hearing that he could not get up, she raced down the stairs and asked the TTC agent in his booth to turn off the escalator immediately.
A man rushing by above saw the young woman returning and helped her get Don back up on his feet.
The TTC agent wanted to call paramedics, but Don insisted he felt fine — with nothing apparently broken.
Dusting himself off, Don asked his young rescuer to join him for lunch and they walked to a popular location just west of Yonge Street.
Over lunch he learned that this woman, the only passer-by to come to his aid, was a 22-year-old student at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University).
When she had to leave for her next class, Don asked her to put her contact information on his cell phone.
He wanted both the City of Toronto and the Toronto media to know what she had done for him.
When he arrived back in Bala, Don was shocked when he could not find her contact information on his phone. A helpful legion friend also had no luck finding her contacts when searching the device.
One way or another we are going to get in touch that young woman who rescued our friend, the Coach.
I think the whole town of Bala will also want to thank her for rescuing Don.
We hope to reach out to Toronto Metropolitan University with this that it might appear on campus bulletin boards.
We’re also forwarding this story to Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s office to show her there are still some good Samaritans in her city once renowned as “Toronto the Good.”
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