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Escambia Search And Rescue Celebrates 60 Years Of Volunteer Service
July 25, 2021
The volunteers of Escambia Search and Rescue celebrated 60 years of service with an open house event Saturday.
Nearly 100 volunteers were honored for their commitment to ESAR, one of the oldest all-volunteer search and rescue groups in the country. ESAR provides search and rescue support to multiple agencies, including the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, Escambia Fire Rescue, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other to find missing people or assist stranded individuals.
“It takes a special person to join into the volunteer ranks of search and rescue,” ESAR Director Clint Retherford said. “We have built so much on the team we established in 1961.”
ESAR uses their training and technology to find people in a variety of circumstances including lost children and adults, missing hunters, drowning victims, overdue boats, and natural disaster victims.
ESAR also takes part in Project Lifesaver, a locating technology for those who are prone to wandering, becoming lost, and not likely to be able to find their way back to safety on their own. Persons with alzheimer’s, dementia, autism, traumatic brain injury, or other related cognitive conditions are eligible for Project Lifesaver.
Project Lifesaver uses a small radio transmitter about the size of a watch that can be worn on the wrist or ankle. It emits a radio signal with a unique frequency for each transmitter. Escambia Search And Rescue has trained search volunteers and receiving equipment ready to respond to assist in locating these individuals, sometimes in as little as 15-30 minutes.
For more information on Project Lifesaver, email ddirector@ESAR.com.
Images courtesy WEAR 3 for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
4 Responses to “Escambia Search And Rescue Celebrates 60 Years Of Volunteer Service”
Warm congratulations and profound respect to ESAR, and a particular shout-out to Dive Commander Clint Retherford, who truly is ever vigilant in this calling. Clint is the secretary for the Marine Advisory Committee–a thankless enough task, herding us cats
–and it’s not uncommon for him to step out to field emergency calls and offer potentially life-saving advice during those meetings. This community is very lucky to have someone so invested in safety and human well-being helping to guard our waters. Hats off to him and to all of the ESAR responders for everything that they do, which is a heck of a lot more than most people realize.
Im a retired FWC officer, and ESAR helped to make Our job much easier over the years. ESAR never failed to respond to Our request for help. They are a top notch group of people!
Awesome group of people. Have had the pleasure of working with them a few times over the years.
Appreciate your dedication and service.