Search, rescue volunteers seek to reboot Island group

ESPANOLA—The North Shore Search and Rescue (NSSR) organization is comprised of about 100 members currently, but with 12,000 square miles of coverage stretching from Blind River through Elliot Lake, Espanola, Manitoulin, Sudbury all the way down to Parry Sound, there is always a need for more members. Manitoulin Island, for instance, is down to a single member.

“It’s hard with the geography on the Island,” noted NSSR President Bill Noon. “I know our member there would like to see a unit start up again.”

There are approximately 300,000 full-time residents in the NSSR catchment area, and an unknown number of seasonal residents. While the search and rescue calls are not all that frequent, when they do come the NSSR plays a very critical role.

NSSR membership begins by making a simple call to Mr. Noon (contact information at end of this article). The next step would be the completion of a criminal record check, the vulnerable sector version. “We work with the very young and the elderly,” noted Mr. Noon, “so it is important to have that deeper clearance done.”

Once the vetting has been complete, there are a number of levels of training that people are able to access through the NSSR.

“We have a basic 20-hour search and rescue course that everybody has to take,” said Mr. Noon. “Once you have completed that, you have become an ‘active searcher.’ But that is just a small part of what we do.”

Sometimes searches end up with a happy ending, but that was not the case when the NSSR came to M’Chigeeng to search for a young man who had gone missing after leaving a poker game in a blizzard. Despite the entire community’s best efforts, that unfortunate young man was located near a swamp following a thaw, having succumbed to hyperthermia.

As critical as the search and rescue function is, there are relatively few calls where those skills are called upon.

“We have no funding whatsoever,” pointed out Mr. Noon. “So a lot of our time is involved in fundraising.” That aspect does tend to turn a lot of people off, but it is a critical part of helping to ensure there are properly equipped search and rescue volunteers on hand when the need does arrive. “It does tend to turn a lot of people off,” noted Mr. Noon. “They join up to do the search and rescue work, but the reality is that we have only about a dozen calls a year, fewer this year.”

Higher training with the NSSR includes the more rigorous 40-hour first responder training module, necessary for those providing first aid support at local sporting events like motocross or snowmobile races, and wilderness survival courses, like the Hug-a-Tree program.

“The Hug-a-Tree program is designed with younger people in mind, but I think a lot of older people could find it useful as well,” said Mr. Noon. “If a family is going camping and taking the kids with them, the program will teach kids what they should do to prevent becoming lost in the first place, and what to do if they do get lost.” Hence the Hug-a-Tree concept. “Sit down, stay put and hug a tree,” said Mr. Noon.

The NSSR will provide the outdoor survival course to “anyone who wants it,” said Mr. Noon. “Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, elementary schools and even high schools.” Mr. Noon pointed out that the NSSR has delivered the course on request to most of the Island schools over the years. And it isn’t just for kids, the NSSR recently provided courses to EMS personnel in Sudbury.

The NSSR is offering a standard first aid course at 385 Ricci Drive in Espanola on the weekend of January 30-31 that is open to everyone. In this course attendees will gain training in first aid, CPR and AED (defibrillator) application. Cost for the course is $130 and those interested in attending should contact Mr. Noon. NSSR members receive free training in the courses necessary to their work as volunteers with the organization.

Founded in 1989, the NSSR is part of a larger provincial organization, one of 18 such organizations that make up the Ontario Search and Rescue Volunteer Association. To be part of the NSSR is to be ready to meet the high standards set down by the Canadian Standards Association and it comparable to the search and rescue training undergone by police, firefighters and ambulance workers (EMS).

Members train to meet search and rescue challenges both in the classroom and in the field, learning to use maps, compasses, charts and other navigational aids, as well as working through search and rescue scenarios to be better prepared when the real event occurs.

The NSSR recently engaged in a five-hour field training session that involved a mock search. In that scenario, the NSSR teams received the compass headings of a downed aircraft and set out to ‘find’ the two missing passengers.

Each NSSR unit trains twice a month, with one session taking place in-class and the other in the field. Once a year members take part in a multi-unit training session, with the next exercise taking place in the Elliot Lake region this winter. An even larger exercise is planned for 2016 which will involve teams from across Northeastern Ontario.

The NSSR doesn’t just conduct its work in the wilderness, they can also be called upon to conduct urban searches, noted Mr. Noon, citing cases where those suffering from dementia have wandered off. In any event, the call for NSSR services must come from a police agency or, in the case of a rescue where the injured or ill person is in a known location, EMS can make the call. Not every call must involve a search or a rescue either.

All this work calls for both volunteers and fundraising, as the NSSR receives no regular government funding. It all takes money, and the NSSR budget runs to about $50,000 a year, most of which is eaten up by insurance costs. In order to cover travel costs, meals and accommodations, the NSSR holds a number of fundraising events across their region, including duck races in Espanola on the Spanish River and an ice derby in Elliot Lake. As a charitable organization, the NSSR can issue tax receipts for cash donations.