Parkland Search and Rescue is raising awareness about the organization.

They did a training exercise yesterday (Wed), starting at York Lake and going in and around Yorkton.

Vice-President of Parkland Search and Rescue, Dustin Brears explained the group was put into small search teams and given different GPS coordinates that they had to successfully find, then report back to command and receive a new set of coordinates to locate.

After the training exercise, everyone returned to York Lake where some of the team members talked with their experienced counterparts.

“It’s really a good team building event and community awareness for our group.” Brears said.

“Parkland Search and Rescue is a chapter within the province…Search and Rescue is the fourth emergency response, in addition to police, fire and ambulance. We’ll get dispatched by typically the RCMP to go searching for missing persons.” he explained of the organization and what they do.

He says depending on the year, they respond to 10 calls a year to search for a missing person, and the call could come from anywhere in the province at anytime of the year.

Brears called the group “professional volunteers” because they are trained to the highest standard, which is important for the work they do.

They are also looking for donations, so if anyone would like to donate, email [email protected] or call Dustin at 306-621-7161.

“We’re totally self-sustaining and we have very expensive equipment that we need to purchase — command post, big truck, we have GPS Units, we have rescue equipment, radio equipment, and it all comes on the backs of volunteers,” he said. “We do a lot of fundraising efforts, we do have some corporate partners that regularly contribute some funds to our group. It is volunteer driven and donation funded so we’re pretty proud of that.”

Brears says currently, they’re situated at Crestview Ambulance, however, they would like to, one day, have a permanent place in the community where they can store all of the equipment so it’s readily available year-round, especially during the winter months.