(Spencer)– Special accolades were given during Monday evening’s Spencer City Council meeting to a man and a police officer who were involved in the rescue of two boys on the Little Sioux River in Spencer on May 9th. The boys were swept away by the current while attempting to ride their bicycles across the flooded river. They managed to grab a hold of a utility pole and were clinging to it. Evan Scheck, a tennis coach happened to be nearby and swam out to them and guided one of them back to shore. The other was assisted to shore after a police officer tossed a floatation device to Scheck who was then able to get it to the other boy, who was then pulled to safety. Spencer Police Chief Mark Warburton Monday evening praised the action of Scheck and one of his officers for their heroic actions…
“Mr. Scheck is heard on body footage. He is very calm and collected during the entire time and he was walking the steps through of what they were going to do and how they were going to do it and just basically giving him the encouragement that they were going to get him out safely. When they did, he ended up, the boy jumped in the water with the disc in his arms and Mr. Scheck came up behind him and just cradled him right in his arms, held onto the rope, and officer Malen was then able to pull him into shore. It was just a good example of teamwork under some pretty stressful conditions, and it happened very fast. One of the things I hear, I know, was should we call the Fire Department with their rescue gear? It just happened so quick that the officer was just able to help out right away and Mr. Scheck was at the right place at the right time.”
Warburton says it’s proof as to how fortunate we are to live in this area…
“When you go back and you look, you know, it was very much, when they pulled him out of the water, there was probably a dozen people on shore that started clapping and it was just kind of that hometown feel of you’re just glad that you’re in northwest Iowa and had that kind of reception there. The boys had lost their bicycles, their backpacks, everything, as they were trying to cross the trail and got swept downstream, so it just shows you how powerful that river can be.”
Warburton described the rescue as a total group effort and also thanked bystanders who helped bring attention to what was going on.
