Teaching teenage drivers can be a daunting duty, but there are still brave men and women who accept the challenge to mold tomorrow’s safe motorists. Sanford Lion Theron Womble is one who faced the challenge and lived to tell about it. And tell about it he did Thursday, July 8, at the weekly Sanford Lions meeting.
Womble, a retired Lee County teacher and driver’s education instructor, described what it was like to sit in the passenger seat of those driver’s ed cars with a foot inches away from the safety brake mounted on the passenger’s side. The state requires all school-age teens who want a driver’s permit and license to take the 30 hour course that requires both classroom work and driving practice. In fact, Womble said the graduated licensing process has done more to improve driving skills of teens and make the roads safer than anything else. It even requires that students maintain passing grades to remain in the program.
He said many students show no signs of having practiced driving before the course. As they learn to turn the steering wheel to round curves or the proper braking pressure, or changing lanes in traffic, the instructor learns quickly not to take an eye off the road or the results can be harrowing.
And then, as with most teenagers, things just happen. There was the time a mother had given permission for Womble to pick up her daughter for a Saturday morning driving session at a friend’s house where she spent the night. The 15-year-old hopped into the car scantily clad with a sheer top supported by spaghetti straps. Womble said he reminded her that school dress code went for driver’s ed too. She explained that she didn’t want to put on the same clothes she had worn the day before, so she just kept on her pajamas. The retired teacher and pillar of First Baptist Church clasped his wrists together, saying he could just see the police slapping handcuffs on him if caught riding around with a teenage female in her in PJ’s. She returned inside and changed clothes.
Local Lions are now engaged in work on the club’s biggest fundraiser each year—The Lee Regional Fair. Advertising for the Fair catalogue is now being solicited from area businesses and professional organizations with Lions making contacts. The public’s support of this project is very important. The catalogue lists all program events, schedules, and the many exhibit categories for which prizes and ribbons are awarded. Fair proceeds help fund the many charitable causes supported by the Sanford Lions Club, which last club year topped $31,000.
President Marvin Joyner presided at the meeting and Theron Womble gave the invocation. Lion Jimmy Bridges led the club in the Pledge of Allegiance. Richard Wallace was welcomed as a guest of Lion Ed Paschal.
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