Dedicated members of Cochrane Search and Rescue have been thoroughly busy in their work to ensure those who go missing in town or the surrounding area return home safely.
Comprised completely of volunteers, Cochrane Search and Rescue (SAR) includes 80 members from Cochrane, Canmore, and Calgary. The organization is a non-profit charity, and in addition to responding to incidents, the group also does their own fundraising.
Andy Potton, president and senior search manager, has been with Cochrane SAR since 2011. He said annual costs for the organization are $20,000, and it costs an additional $30,000 to $40,000 a year to insure vehicles and equipment, and train new members.
In 2022, the group brought on and certified 15 new members. This year, 20 more members have been added to the team so far. Potton said he plans to have the newcomers certified as operational ground search and rescue volunteers by June.
Last year, Potton said Cochrane SAR responded to 20 incidents.
“We classify an incident when we are called by the RCMP to assist them or an organization, such as a municipality, Cochrane Fire [Services] for a town event if they need resources, or Calgary Police Service if there is a file if they have in our area.” Potton said.
Last year, the local SAR branch contributed over 9,500 volunteer hours while responding to incidents in the Cochrane, Canmore, and Stoney Nakoda regions.
In addition, members also contributed 3,500 hours of administrative and fundraising work.
When in the field, Potton said SAR's job is to understand the situation as much as they can before starting their search. This includes figuring out the identity of the missing individual and additional key elements of the search area.
“The search area can be anywhere from a trail through downtown Cochrane or Canmore, to a mountain trail,” Potton said. “If we are getting more in depth with the search, then we would enter into what we call ‘area searching’ where we get into forest or large areas where our members go into, quickly and efficiently, cover large amounts of ground as teams of five, sweeping back and forth through these areas, leaving no stone unturned.”
One thing that Potton said Cochrane SAR prides itself on is what he called reflex tasking. This allows them to find people much more quickly, and also roll out to new areas when they can quickly start searching.
As well, search managers like Potton incorporate the use of lost person profiles to better understand the individual they are looking for.
“And we have great support from our Cochrane, Morley, and Canmore detachments,” Potton said. “They call us, and get boots on the ground quickly, to allow us to assist and get out there.”
Potton said all the members of Cochrane SAR are incredible group of humans. He believes that volunteer search and rescue organizations represent the people that they look for.
Although he believes the work of search and rescue to be quite demanding, he outlined they are all committed to serving the community.
“We look for all different people from all different backgrounds and all different walks of life,” Potton said. “And our membership is exactly the same. Volunteers with many different jobs, experiences in the bush or back country, but they all come together because they want to provide a volunteer resource for their community and they want to learn the skills to bring home missing loved ones.”
One of the drivers of Potton returning to the leadership role was to continue to push for female leadership in the SAR field, and increase it from its current average of 35 per cent.
“Search and rescue teams are often under-represented by women and the LGBTQ+ community and Cochrane Search and Rescue is always pushing for our current female members to become leaders in our organization,” Potton said. “As such, we have three females, of seven, on our Board of Directors and around 50 per cent of our Section and Committee Leads are female.”
Potton, alongside members of the organization, would like to give thanks to the Kimmett Family and the Lindsay Leigh Kimmett Memorial Foundation for their continued support over the last five years.
“Quite frankly, without them, Cochrane Search and Rescue would not be organization that we are to this day,” Potton said. “they’ve allowed us the opportunity to volunteer time and given generous donations to keep us running.”
He asks anyone who is interested to help support Cochrane SAR and the foundation by supporting event like the Monumental Tournament of Aces.
The organization also extends thanks to the Cochrane Lions Club as they have been big supporters over the years.
Anyone who is interested in supporting Cochrane SAR in rescue. However, they must first be invited to do so by visiting csarab.org.
Potton added that a Kickstarter with a fundraising goal around $185,000 will launch later in the year to build a new command centre within town limits. He invites anyone in the Cochrane area who has experience in fund-development or fundraising to reach out to him directly via [email protected].
