“I just swam. I swam as hard as I could.” — Jordan Lehman
by Dennis Rahm
Photo above: the Lehman family (left to right) Jordan, Jemma, Baine, Jett, Blanca and Bekah
You may have heard about Jordan Lehman (CHS Class of ’04). He’s the Chelan School District Special Ed Para and assistant coach who swam out to rescue a mom and her two young sons in the Columbia River on Thursday. You may have seen the video of him bringing the mom to safety on Lake Chelan Now’s Facebook page.
Now you can hear the interview with Jordan as he explains how an end of the school year picnic with his Life Skills students ended with him and a colleague in freezing cold water on a successful rescue mission.
Lake Chelan Now’s Dennis Rahm caught up with Jordan via cell phone on Friday afternoon, the day after the rescue on the river. (Apologies for some of the background noise and intermittent bad cell quality.)
Jordan tells Lake Chelan Now’s Dennis Rahm how they were alerted to the emergency and what happened next
Jordan and his wife Blanca have 4 children. Although fueled by pure adrenaline, his emotionally driven motivation was keeping the members of this unknown family together. He didn’t know that a lifetime of swimming in the brisk waters of the Columbia River and Lake Chelan would be put to such important use.
Related LakeChelanNow story: June 7: Chelan School Staff Members Rescue Mother and Two Children
