Foothills Search and Rescue is on the home stretch in its effort to replace its aging command centre vehicle.
An $87,800 donation from the Okotoks Rotary Club on Oct. 18 puts the organization close to its financial target to get a new mobile command centre.
Steven Eddy, Okotoks Rotary Club president, said last week’s donation included private donations to the club and a $30,000 donation from Crescent Point Energy. He said helping Search and Rescue with its command centre is an important project for the Okotoks Rotary Club.
“We were looking for a large project that would fit the Rotary requirements and help raise the Rotary brand awareness in the community and also provides some serious benefit to the local community,” said Eddy. “It sure struck us that Foothills Search and Rescue, this is something that provides benefits all over.”
Dave Culbert, Foothills Search and Rescue vice-president, said it’s a big boost to the group’s fundraising efforts.
“We’re just really thankful for the Rotarians and the donations have been huge, not just from the Rotary Club, but all of the different groups in the Foothills that have helped us,” he said.
Culbert said the new command centre will cost around $365,000.
“We are just a little bit shy on the dollars to get that going,” he said. “We’re at the point now we’re ready to give a deposit and we’re hoping to make the order in April.”
The organization is fundraising the entire amount. It’s a lot of work for the group’s volunteers.
“It’s been a massive, massive effort for Foothills Search and Rescue,” said Culbert.
He said the effort has also been good to help raise the group’s profile in the Foothills community and to raise awareness of the work it does.
“A lot of people still don’t know what search and rescue is, so this has helped us to get our name out there,” said Culbert.
Search and Rescue has purchased a truck and chassis and plans are being drawn up to build the command module that will be attached to the vehicle. Culbert said fundraising efforts at this point are geared at securing the remaining funds necessary to complete the build.
Culbert said it will take five months after the order is placed for the finished vehicle to be delivered.
He said Search and Rescue is using its existing command vehicle, an older-model RV, which is on its last legs.
“We limit where it can go, we don’t take it out for all the events, parades and such,” he said. “We take it to some but not all. We can no longer get parts for it. That’s a problem. If it breaks down then that’s where it stays.”
The new command centre will give them more flexibility and it will be able to get into more areas the old one can’t access.
“It will allow us get into more locations, have a more professional command centre,” he said. “We could use it for fires. We could use it wherever we expect to be called out.”
Culbert said it will also help them to work better with other emergency services, such as fire and police.
