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Niagara search and rescue volunteers encourage water safety

Rainy weather could not keep visitors from attending an open house, hosted by the Civil Air Search And Rescue Association Niagara and at Niagara District Airport Saturday.
Randy Klaassen

Rainy weather could not keep visitors from attending an open house, hosted by the Civil Air Search And Rescue Association (CASARA) Niagara and South Shore Search and Rescue at Niagara District Airport on Saturday.

For the community volunteers of search and rescue the open house goal was to  reduce their workload by reducing the number of calls.

With the onset of the organization’s busy spring and summer season, the public invitation was to highlight the importance of water safety and prevent rescue operations. Last year South Shore Search and Rescue based at Grimsby Harbour and Fifty Point Marina had 34 rescue operations, while for CASARA Niagara’s 10 air operations, half were for people in water.

The open house event was attended by about 75 community members. They had the opportunity to attempt locating an emergency locator transmitter of the type used on aircraft, ships and by hikers and hunters. There were also tours of a search aircraft and mobile command vehicle operated by CASARA Niagara, while South Shore volunteers held a rescue bag toss contest.

The afternoon wrapped up with a door prize draw of a 30-minute flight for three people over the St. Catharines area. The winner of the draw was John Csikos, of Fenwick, who was accompanied by his grandsons, Sam and Evan Syer of London. While rain and light winds made for an interesting flight, they were all smiles upon landing, especially from young Sam, who had the honour of sitting up front to serve as ‘first officer.’

Both CASARA Niagara and South Shore Search and Rescue are fully volunteer, non-profit charitable organizations, depending upon community donations in order to be available on call for those in distress. Both organizations are tasked by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre at Canadian Forces Base, Trenton.

For further information see the websites: http://casaraniagara.ca and https://www.gamru.ca.

Randy Klaassen is an active volunteer with the local search and rescue operation, a training officer, search coordinator, and certified assistant searchmaster.