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SAR seeks successor for flag duty |
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Tuesday, 02 December 2008 |
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By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
11-29-2008 After more than 20 years, the Inyo County Search and Rescue team is rolling up its flags and hoping another group or organization will commandeer the job of adorning the streets of Bishop with the stars and stripes.
The volunteers of Inyo SAR have announced this will be their last year lining Bishop’s major thoroughfares with American flags in observance of the six national holidays each year, even though the task has been a major fundraiser for the group.
“The issue is a matter of time,” SAR Team Leader Dave Germain said Tuesday.
“SAR volunteers spend several hundred hours every year, training and going on calls,” Germain said, explaining that the added work entailed in this major fundraising effort six times a year is just not how SAR wants to spend its time. “Our mission is to help people, not raising money.”
According to Germain, Inyo SAR will now focus its fundraising efforts on one major event every year, the annual Gear Head Swap Meet at the Choo Choo Swap Meet. The group also receives donations from the individuals and families it helps rescue; SAR is occasionally also the recipient of grant money.
In the late 1990s, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department had taken responsibility for SAR and the department supplies much of the technical gear and assistance, from taking the 911 calls and dispatching team members to summoning helicopter support, when needed.
Germain admitted that this move carries a certain amount of risk, but he said the group should be able to pull it off “by refocusing our efforts to prioritize spending and minimize expenses.”
Expenses for the group are primarily for training purposes, Germain explained. He said that the volunteer nature of the program means some members are more experienced with certain facets of search and rescue than others, and so there is a lot of training done “in house.” Inyo SAR also assists in paying the expenses for a member to become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), or to take a Wilderness First Responders certification class. Team members are also required to have a certain amount of training, both technical and medical, to be certified by the Mountain Rescue Association.
Expensive training, such as learning advanced rope techniques for rescue, may involve sending just one or two members to the class, and then these members teach what they have learned to the rest of the team.
Although Inyo SAR is ending its reign of posting Old Glory around Bishop, Germain and SAR member Tom Woods said the team is anxious for another organization to take over the fundraising program.
Inyo SAR raised money by sending out annual applications to businesses on Main and Line streets in Bishop and ask for a minimum $35 donation to have the flags flying on Presidents Day, the Fourth of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day and Labor Day. Germain said many businesses would generously donate more than the minimum but noted it depended on the owner.
“The organization taking over the program will get all the flags and equipment as well as information on how to run this successful fundraiser,” Woods said. “Terms will be discussed with any interested parties, including price and fundraising potential.”
He added that Inyo SAR gets help from the Boy Scouts to put up the flags, but as the Scouts do the work as “community service,” so any money they raise is given to SAR. Woods also said that if there are no interested parties, the group may eventually give the Scouts the program.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 16 December 2008 )
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