What is SAR?
The reality that your life is hanging in the balance has settled heavily on you and the only thing on your mind is the love you haven’t expressed. You review the blessings you’ve taken for granted, cringe at the remembrance of times you let your pride get in the way of relationships, and wish you had contributed more to the people around you. And then you hear a voice. Was it angels? Yes, in a manner of speaking it was. Against all odds, a Search and Rescue, (SAR), team has found you. You’re one of the lucky ones who get another chance at life.
Park City Volunteers Make the Team
Every year a group of highly trained volunteers stand ready to lend their time and skills in the recovery of victims of everything from avalanche to water accidents to hikers lost in the vast wilderness that surrounds Park City. During a disaster event of any kind the Summit and Wasatch County’s Search and Rescue Teams attempt to seek out and save the lives of individuals that may be trapped or needing rescue. Volunteers from all over our mountain land area make themselves available to give that all they have to any situation that calls upon them.
Our local SAR teams operate under the jurisdiction of Wasatch and Summit County’s Sheriff’s Departments and often work in conjunction with one another. In 2010 alone, 120 incidents required the help of these people. Some operations are successful and some are not, but without a doubt every single incident is given a 100% effort by this dedicated group of volunteers that currently number 93 between the two Counties. All of these people have ordinary lives and jobs, but they choose to give back to their community by using their spirit and skills to help people who need their help the most.
Because the immense backcountry surrounding Park City has such varied outdoor recreational activities, team members are given the opportunity to specialize in particular emergency scenarios. Groups that concentrate on snow and freezing temperatures, or heat and dehydration issues, or urban disaster rescue are extremely well trained in the particular difficulties that come with each of these settings. There also is a subgroup who are experts in underwater recovery and use of an underwater ROV, (remotely operated vehicle.) Another specialization is technical climbing. Members of this team are prepared to retrieve victims of metropolitan disasters, mountain and deep cave climbing accidents, and abandoned mineral mine mishaps. These volunteers undergo a long and thorough training schedule to provide them with the skills they need in a disaster situation.. They give up their free time on weekends and evenings to ensure they are up to the task with a call for help comes in.
How is SAR Funded?
Wasatch and Summit County SARs are funded primarily through County budgets, and are supplemented by Federal funds and individual donations. Even though current funding doesn’t begin to cover the annual cost of searches, the Sheriff’s offices have kept the SAR focus on doing all that can be done to bring victims of disaster home alive.
Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give.” The volunteers that serve on our local SARs don’t stop there … they give up so much of their own lives so that others have another chance to live.
We at Chin-MacQuoid-Fleming-Harris wish to extend a heart-felt thank you from all of Summit and Wasatch County residents for being there for us when we need help the most.
