Eleven-year-old William Francis, from Canyon Creek, Alta., is one of our newspaper’s biggest fans, but it isn’t for the stories or pictures.
“Your newspaper is good for a splint,” he wrote in a letter recently. “On March 12 I broke my arm. Since your paper is thick it was best for a splint.”
In case farm families are wondering how to apply it, here’s the story as told by William’s mother, Marie:
“He had fallen off of his bunk bed when he was putting his blankets on it. After he had fallen he came running into the living room.
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“I took one look at his arm and told my husband Larry that William’s arm was broken.
“Larry knows first aid so he grabbed the nearest thing on hand to make a splint, which was your newspaper. We used yarn to tie it up and put his arm in a sling. We then rushed him to the Slave Lake hospital.
“They couldn’t fix his arm there, so we ended up taking him to the Royal Alex hospital in Edmonton.
“We all enjoy reading your paper and I never imagined that a newspaper could be used this way. Just thought we would let you know there are more uses for your newspaper than just for reading,” Marie Francis wrote.
We’re happy to help, and hope the arm is healing.
I suppose the newspaper also provided a bit of reading material on the long trip to the hospital.
Perhaps our newspaper could be tucked into first aid kits, along with a ball of yarn and first aid instructions written by the innovative Francis family.
Thanks for the letter.
