Explorer Rescue Unit To Be Formed

The Bonner County Sheriff’s Department wants to team up with area teenagers and train the county’s first all-youth search-and-rescue unit.

The program, called Explorer Search and Rescue, is being launched today in conjunction with the Boy Scouts of America.

“I can’t say this is the first one, but I don’t know of it being done anywhere else,” said program coordinator and Sandpoint Search and Rescue member Dwayne Foster.

The idea is to take boys and girls ranging from 14 to 20 years old.

They will be taught outdoor survival skills, rescue techniques, tracking, CPR and first aid.

Certified county instructors will teach the courses and members of the units will be required to pass classes, the same as adult rescue teams, said Sheriff Chip Roos.

“This is not just a train-andpretend program with mock rescues,” Roos added.

“We plan to use them. The youth units will be called out with our regular search-and-rescue teams.”

Roos said the program will give kids something to do, teach useful skills and make them an assest to the community.

Foster recently pitched the Explorer program at Sandpoint High School and had 81 students interested.

That means three new youth rescue units could be formed and possibly others in Clark Fork and Priest River.

Each unit will run itself, with trained search-and-rescue members assigned only as advisers.

“After the initial training we will only be there to guide and assist,” Foster said.

“The Explorers will run this themselves, hold their own meetings and have their own equipment.”

Foster already has offers from local merchants to help buy outdoor gear, like backpacks and compasses.

“This is something worthwhile for kids and I think this program could really turn into something,” Roos said.

If it works, the sheriff said he may take it a step further and consider a law enforcement Explorer program.

The first organizational meeting for Explorer Search and Rescue is tonight at 6:30 in the Sandpoint VFW Hall on Pine Street.

Anyone who would like more information can contact Foster at 263-3179.