Woman Pulls Tow Truck (Ky)

[TowNews]

 

Woman pulls tow truck to inspire boys and girls

 

CATLETTSBURG Ten tons, fifty feet, a hundred expectant children.

Lauren Tussey had promised Friday to pull a tow truck weighing that much across the Catlettsburg Elementary School parking lot while children took their monthly snow cone break and watched.

 

Setting an example, she said. Showing little girls — and boys — that anything is possible with determination and fortitude.

No pressure, right?

Actually, very little, judging by Tussey’s lighthearted replies to questions about her upcoming ordeal: “You’ve just got to lace your shoes up tight and lean in,” she said — and then did just that.

When Tussey slipped into the harness attached to the truck’s front bumper, she took a few deep breaths, leaned forward until her shoulders almost touched the ground.

She took a short step and then another and another and after eight steps broke into a slow trot, the massive red truck rolling slowly behind her until she crossed the 50-foot line.

Tussey, 27, has been in training for months and already has won trophies for strength competitions, and she volunteered to pull the truck at Catlettsburg because she lives in town and that’s where she attended preschool and played youth basketball.

“I remember in elementary school seeing presentations that helped shape me and my convictions, whether it was about drugs or recycling — I just vividly remember those assemblies, she said.

Her message to children is that anyone can be strong, and accomplish big things. Tussey’s strength training started as a self-improvement campaign that included smoking cessation and better diet choices. Since then it has become a central part of her life. She is a financial planner whose off hours include bench presses, dead lifts and other power-lifting exercises.

“I’m a firm believer in being your own competition,” she said.

 

The truck was courtesy of owner Dean Akers, who admitted donning the harness the previous evening to see how far he could pull it. “I thought, if Lauren can do it, I can do it. She’s a girl,” he said.

The reality? “Forget it,” he said. The truck wouldn’t budge.

The festive atmosphere came with a valuable lesson, according to Catlettsburg principal Jeff Frasure. “Anything you set your mind to you can do,” he said.

Compared with what Tussey wants to pull next, the tow truck is little more than a Tonka toy — she has approached the city fire department about hitching herself to one of their fire engines.

 

 

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