Calgary Search and Rescue Association celebrate 30 years of service

The Calgary Search and Rescue Association celebrated 30 years of service on Saturday with an outdoor show filled with family-friendly activities, prizes and vendors.

The event is part of Calgary’s Neighbour Day, a city-run initiative aiming to celebrate local communities and neighbourhoods around the city. Events include block parties, neighbourhood barbeques and local markets.

Carolyn Bouwsema of the Calgary Search and Rescue Association said the outdoor show highlights outdoor-themed vendors and local organizations. The event is also a good opportunity for the association to show residents why it is an important part of the city.

“It’s pretty exciting and it’s a good milestone for any agency, so we’re happy for the support we can provide to our city,” Bouwsema told Global News. “We’re able to support the Calgary Police Service, RCMP, Calgary Emergency Management Agency and Parks Canada in response to missing persons searches … We do preventative search and rescue training, too.”

Bouwsema noted that the association is volunteer-run and relies on training grants for funding. Calgary Search and Rescue Association is not funded by the Alberta government and the organization is having a conversation with the province about possible funding in the future.

“I think the on-call nature of the volunteer role can be challenging because we all have day jobs outside of our volunteering with search and rescue and we need to be available and trained and ready to go when we are called,” Bouwsema said.

“Currently we have just over 70 members volunteering within Calgary Search and Rescue, and we typically do a new intake for volunteers about every 18 months. Our next intake is in fall 2024. We need people who are able to run social media channels, people who enjoy our tasks, people who want to do operations and logistics or run our website.”