Volunteer
Elkland Search and Rescue is always looking for volunteer emergency response team, interested in joining us as we strive to help people. So how can you help us? Our primary mission is locating and rescuing persons who are having problems in the woodlands of our area. We need people who can hike through the woods utilizing the various search techniques – hasty search, grid search, man tracking and containment. Yes, we will train you to do these searches. We will pair you with a partner and equip you with a radio, GPS, map, parka and information so that these searches can be done efficiently and safely. We expect you to bring a willingness to follow the directions of the search managers and to perform the assigned tasks as thoroughly as you can.
Some other related activities that we help with are: forest fire fighting – both actively fighting the fires using UTV mounted water systems and using our vehicles to move men and materials to where they are needed; providing a warm up or cool down shelter for local firefighters at incidents they are working; providing manpower for community events – both volunteer emergency response team and non-volunteer emergency response team; river searches for missing persons in that environment; and, in town searches for missing children or persons suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Some special skills that you might bring are: familiarity with computers as we utilize computerized mapping systems to keep track of the search areas plus have a website and Facebook page; knowledge of radios as we use both UHF and VHF radios and deploy a radio repeater for our VHF system; mechanical skills as we have two ATVs, two UTVs, three generators and two trucks that need general maintenance; medical skills since many of the persons who we search for have medical issues; familiarity with the woodlands in the area to help pinpoint access or problems that we may not know about; and general building maintenance.
We also have limited roles for people to help the organization with fundraising, publicity, logistics and field support.
What is the reward for the hard work that being a member of Elkland SAR requires? Most of our members live for deployments. Nothing compares to the opportunity to use one’s skills to potentially save a life. Sometimes you will see but always will know that you have helped a person or family in a time of need.
If any of the above interests you, visit us for one of our monthly membership meetings on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 8:00 PM. If you come a little earlier at 7:30, we will be happy to talk, show you around, and assign a mentor to help guide you through the membership process.