On Sunday, July 7, P.E.I. Ground Search and Rescue (P.E.I. GSAR) will be conducting a mock search and rescue exercise in the Montague and Brudenell area.
This event will be ongoing from 8:30 a.m. until around 5 p.m.
Part of P.E.I. GSAR’s annual training, it’s a chance for members to practise and test core skills like navigation, survival, first aid, search techniques, search management, clue identification and tracking. Searchers will be wearing high-visibility orange vests or jackets. Mock victims will be easily identified by a badge.
In addition to the human participants, there will be props set out along the Montague River between Knox’s Dam and Brudenell Point. These props will be identified as part of the training exercise. There should be no disruption of traffic during the exercise.
P.E.I. GSAR is a volunteer-based, non-profit, charitable organization based in Charlottetown that serves the entire province. P.E.I. GSAR is managed by a volunteer executive and has approximately 100 volunteer members.
P.E.I. GSAR members work closely with the RCMP, Emergency Measures Organization (EMO), local police services, firefighters, the Canadian Coast Guard, Parks Canada, the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary and many other organizations.
The mandate of P.E.I. GSAR is to search for, and rescue, individuals who are lost or injured. The organization is on-call 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Searches range from short responses to those that last for several days.
P.E.I. GSAR is also the responding agency for Project Lifesaver PEI (projectlifesaverpei.com) and runs AdventureSmart (adventuresmart.ca) programs across the Island.