Iowa football player helps teens who ran out of gas one year after changing woman’s tire

Hawkeye linebacker Zach Twedt was leaving a Walmart in Iowa City when he spotted two stranded girls.

Riley Uthe’s car had just run out of gas on her way to the gym with her best friend Emma Kuepker.

It was a familiar sight for Twedt, who stopped to help single mom Tina Gunn, who had a flat tire near Story City, so she could get home to Omaha last year in July. Gunn detailed Twedt's good deed on social media and the story went viral.

A night before the anniversary of meeting Gunn, he did it again. Twedt pulled over in his truck to help the pair of 17-year-old girls, who were traumatized from an event they experienced the night before.

"It really was just a reminder when a lot of people are kicking you down, there's a lot of good people in our community," Uthe's mom Salina McCarty said.

More: An Iowa football player went viral for changing a woman's tire. They're still friends a year later.

How Twedt helped inspire a high school girl and her family

Early Sunday morning, the girls went out to a restaurant for pizza with a friend and there was gunfire in downtown Iowa City.

The Iowa City Police Department responded to reports of shots fired at the Pedestrian Mall around 1 a.m. on July 9 and officers located shell casings and property damage. The incident involving two men is currently under investigation, according to a news release.

The people with weapons ended up in the same parking ramp as the girls, which caused more fear, according to McCarty. On Sunday afternoon, Uthe went to hang out with Kuepker.

More: Iowa Hawkeyes football player changes flat tire for Nebraska family stranded on I-35

“She was pretty scared the next day and had a lot of anxiety. She had gone to pick up Emma, gone to the gym, and her Jeep Renegade is having an issue with the gas reader,” McCarty said. “We remind her (to) just fill up every day, but she’s 17 and even if I was told to do that, I wouldn’t as her mom and she eventually ran out of gas.”

McCarty and her husband Curtis Uthe showed up a few minutes after, but things started to go awry.

“Curtis bought a gallon of gas that they sell in the store now and the paper funnel wasn’t able to handle the gas tank,” McCarty said.

Then, Twedt stopped and left to grab something from his house.

"Five minutes later it was Zach again and he had a full portable tank of gas and insisted on helping and got the car started. It was so kind," McCarty said.

Twedt said he does not seek attention for good deeds.

Why Twedt became a walking billboard for 'Iowa Nice'

After filling the gas tank, McCarty had a question for Twedt, who was donning a "Hawkeye Football" T-shirt.

"I just asked him, 'Is it OK if I post about what he did because my daughter is going through some stuff right now ...' we needed this boost of kindness," she said.

McCarty said it was a "bright, beautiful and inspiring" moment during a difficult weekend.

“His willingness to do it so quickly and to be there was really, really something we haven’t experienced in a while, and it was genuine. Genuine acts of kindness are amazing,” McCarty added. "He was so wonderful, so kind, and followed up to make sure everything was OK."

The junior at the University of Iowa said he enjoys helping others. He is inspired by his friend Gunn, who works as an operations manager at an Omaha hospital system, and his dad Seth, who is a second-generation farmer and lieutenant at the Ames Fire Department.

"My old man's always preaching on me that 'You think you're having a long day or a tough day? You never know what someone's going through,'" Twedt added.

Last week, Zach Twedt reunited with Gunn at his family's Tall T Farms in Story City.

McCarty is the co-founder of a Coralville-based nonprofit organization Houses into Homes, which provides services for community members in crisis situations. She is looking forward to reuniting with Twedt when the football team helps the charity.

From Kinnick Stadium to city streets and Story County highways, Twedt said he will continue to do what he can to be "Iowa Nice."

"Life's too short. Nobody's too good regardless of if I'm on the football team or just a farm kid from Story City, Iowa. It don't matter."

Jay Stahl is an entertainment reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow him on Instagram or reach out at jstahl@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa football player helps high school girls who ran out of gas