Teddy bear picnic a success for search-and-rescue group

Local children, families, and stuffed animals had a great afternoon Sunday thanks to the Meadow Lake Search and Rescue group.

A teddy bear picnic was held the afternoon of July 15, serving as a fundraiser for the organization and an awareness event for emergency services and other local groups. A number of interactive booths were set up at Lion’s Park, and the busy event saw well over 120 attendees.

Krista Gill, acting treasurer and ground searcher with M.L. Search and Rescue, said the local fire department let kids try on bunker gear and held tug-of-wars, EMS personnel were on hand to answer questions, and public health did mock immunizations on stuffed animals. She said the event was a win-win for their own organization and the others.

“It’s nice for kids to know who the emergency services people are,” Gill said. “As for Search and Rescue, we’ve only been up and running again for three years and there’s still a lot of people who don’t know that we exist in Meadow Lake or that there are trained searchers. So for us, it’s also a way to expose we are here.”

Because the event was also a fundraiser, the money raised will go towards the purchase of safety jackets for winter searches, and the group hopes to eventually purchase a mobile trailer unit for their search equipment. Currently, the group stores their supplies at the Meadow Lake Fire Hall, which Gill said volunteers are very thankful for.

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“We’ve been called out in -30 C before, and we’re all going in our own coats,” she said. “It would be nice to have the high-visibly safety warm coats for when we’re out there for we don’t know how long.”

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca

On Twitter @ReporterKath