Jared Wilbur had just spoken to his mother on the phone. Something didn’t seem right.

“When he came to me, I immediately knew something was wrong by the look on his face. Then he told me some of the symptoms his mom was having, and I immediately thought she was having a stroke,” said Marc Ayers.

Wilbur, then a sophomore at Windsor Central High School, and Ayres, then the WCHS School Resource Officer, decided to go to Wilbur’s home, where his mother was waiting for a friend who was an hour away for help.

“I ran inside, and my mom was sitting in her bed. She was crying and on the phone with her friend. I told her that Marc was here, and we were taking her to the road to catch the ambulance,” said Wilbur, now a junior.

Wilbur’s mother was indeed having a stroke. The quick thinking of her son and Ayers helped avert catastrophe.

“The doctor said if we waited that long (for her friend) it would have been worse. Our time just barely made the cut,” said Wilbur, now a junior at WCHS.

On May 15, the Southern Tier Chapter of the American Red Cross honored Ayers and Wilbur as their “Education Heroes” at the organization’s Real Heroes breakfast in Binghamton. Each have their own definition of who the hero was.

“The true hero is Jared and his mom. I was just doing my job, doing what I was supposed to do,” said Ayers.

“I think it was a team effort, more on his part because he had the radio,” said Wilbur.

Wilbur’s mother has recovered, regaining much of the form she had before the stroke.

“I’m very grateful. If we didn’t go, my mom would probably be in a hospital or not able to walk,” said Wilbur.