The searchers have been out since eight in the morning bushwacking 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 Greg 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.”
