|
Search and rescue volunteers undergo tough training weekend |
Also here: http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/local/article/141845
![[]](http://media.metronews.topscms.com/images/5c/31/7b61767a4c0a8b42bff7cc3a7189.jpeg)
Paul McLeod/Metro Halifax
Volunteers Debbie
Slaunwhite, from left, Jason Fenwick and Craig Potter retrace the path through
the Halifax Search and Rescue training exercise yesterday.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Search
and rescue volunteers undergo tough training weekend
PAUL MCLEOD, METRO
HALIFAX
November 17, 2008 05:00
At around six o’clock it starts to
pour.
The searchers have been out since eight in the morning
bushwhacking through the woods. Most are still out there pushing through trees.
It’s wet, dark and cold, but none of that reflects in the people.
“We
feel great. We’re tired and sore, but we don't give a hoot,” said Debbie
Slaunwhite, a mother of two.
She’s one of 14 people who signed up for
this grueling training weekend in the woods near Kearney Lake. They’re not
military or police, they’re volunteers with Halifax Regional Search and Rescue.
By six o’clock on Saturday the teams have already spent 10 hours doing
map and compass exercises, guiding themselves from station to station. It’s far
from over. In a few hours Slaunwhite’s team will come across a victim — a drunk
man with a nasty shoulder wound who crashed his boat. They'll need to care for
him until around midnight.
Then they build a shelter and spend the night.
Piece of cake.
“This is by far the most arduous of our training,” says
Internal Training Officer Craig Potter. “It’s a 100 per cent volunteer
organization of dedicated volunteers just trying to help lost people and their
families.”
The search and rescue team gets $3,000 each year from the
Emergency Management Office, but that doesn't even cover their fuel costs. So
they greatly rely on their own fundraising.
There are about 160 people in
Halifax Search and Rescue. They average more than 24 searches each year. They
buy their own gear and take time off work for training like this to make sure
they’re completely efficient when needed.
“It’s dedication to helping a
lost person. That’s the primary drive,” says Potter. “Ultimately that’s why
these teams are formed. That’s why they’re working.”
|
