For Kim Remesz of Ambrosia Day Spa, Revelstoke Search and Rescue is a family affair of sorts. So, it was a natural that when Ambrosia was looking for a local organization to hold a fundraiser for, Search and Rescue would be the one.
“We chose Search and Rescue to do a fundraiser for because my husband is involved and my father-in-law as well,” she said. “It’s all volunteer, nobody’s paid. We decided with the amount of work they do in our community, they would definitely be our first choice to support.”
Remesz’s husband, Tyler Corrigan, is a member of SAR and his father, Buck, is one of the organization’s three managers.
She is hosting a fundraiser for the organization at the River City Pub this Thursday, Mar. 9 at 6 p.m. and in a very short time she’s put forward an impressive roster of items up for prizes and auction.
They include heli- and cat-ski packages, an avalanche rescue seminar with the Canadian Avalanche Centre, a day at Ambrosia, donations from numerous dozens of local businesses and discounted beer prices courtesy Labatt’s.
“We’ve had a really great response,” said Remesz. “There’s so many businesses it’s hard to list everybody.”
The money will be used on training for SAR members and new equipment, said Buck Corrigan.
“We basically have to beg funds for that sort of thing so that’s what we’ll use the money for,” said Buck Corrigan. “We’ll put people through courses and we’ll spend it on upgrading our equipment.”
As an example, he said the organization spent $2,500 in December to send members to an avalanche response course. Last year they spent $3,000 on avalanche transceivers and they still owe money for a $20,000 helicopter rescue sling
“We still have some transceivers that were given to us by the province 15 years ago,” said Corrigan. “We’re probably going to use them for target practice because they’re really of no value anymore. Until we upgraded, that’s all we had and that’s not really acceptable if you’re going to be put people out in the field.”
The fundraiser will include presentations by Corrigan and Revelstoke Mountain Resort and a film by local producer Frank Desrosiers will be shown. There will be a raffle for prizes throughout the night and a live auction for some of the big ticket items.
SAR has been called out to 17 incidents this season involving skiers, boarders and sledders.
In the latest incident, three skiers were helped off of Mount Mackenzie on the evening of Mar. 6 after they got lost while skiing out-of-bounds below RMR’s Ripper chairlift. SAR hovered over the area in a helicopter and relayed instructions to the trio, who hiked back up to an in-bounds area and then skied out sometime after 10 p.m.
The area below the Ripper chair includes ice-chutes and dangerous cliffs that are hundreds of metres high. It is a no-go area.
Editor's note: The story was updated Monday afternoon to add the Sunday night search, and to update the total number of searches to date this snow season from 15 to 17.