Coquitlam Search and Rescue congratulates one of its own for successfully completing the provincial Search and Rescue Managers Course.
Wendi Harder, an eight year veteran of the team with skills as a team leader and swift water rescuer, passed the four day course recently held at the Justice Institute of BC in New Westminster. Some 20 volunteers came from throughout the province to take this training and be assessed and examined to determine if they are ready to run the course.
The course helps prepare individuals to run searches and rescues and is an intense four day session using a combination of theory and real life scenarios where the participants run a search and put into practice what they are taught in the classroom. They learn everything from search theory to how to handle multiple day searches to how to document the progress of a search.
Over the next few months Wendi will shadow the current Coquitlam SAR management team during tasks to gain operational experience and will be rotated into the roster when she is ready to run her first full search independently as SAR Manager.
As a side note, Wendi will also be participating in Coquitlam SAR’s helicopter rescue training program near the end of April.