KILAUEA — Last week, Kaua‘i Search and Rescue welcomed a handful of people from all walks of life to partake in search-and-rescue activities while deciding if they want to become members of the team. This event was held at Kilauea’s dog park.
“This is very important to our Kaua‘i community and statewide, as over the years missing-person cases have increased. We have been very active over the past year,” logistics and membership coordinator Leah Kerr-Michaels said. “As the community has learned about us, folks here shown a lot of interest.”
Kerr-Michaels said the community is welcome to come to their monthly activities, learn what they do, meet their highly specialized dogs and learn more about search and rescue. They are also invited back to training sessions and to become members of the team.
Scenarios they learned that day included finding hidden folks as if they were missing folks, while they watched the dogs do their work. Some dogs, search-and-rescue personnel said, can find someone through that person’s scent in the air.
One activity that includes that talent is called “man tracking,” involving a group of people walking in a straight line in the woods, looking for 140 different “clues,” or playing cards that were hidden throughout the area for those in training to find people and things.
“It was great. You got to kinda make sure and be watchful, careful and tedious,” new member Caleb Morrison said. “They are cards, but at the same time could be a red string or a shoe. I came today because I want to help people on the island and train to work with the dogs.”
“I learned that there is a lot of skills sets that encompass a lot of things I had not thought of,” member Doug Humiston said. “It’s very interesting.”
Kaua‘i Search and Rescue is supportive of other agencies like Kaua‘i Police Department, fire department and state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
“We have a common goal to work with them and share resources. That is how we are deployed. All of our services are 100% free of charge,” Kerr-Michaels said.
Searching for and rescuing missing persons can be tedious and expensive. If the person is not found in a week, the team needs to get food for everyone who is working hard to find that person and to take care of the dog or dogs they have along with the team.
New technology and savvy apps make it easier to find someone who goes missing, shortening the timeframe and lessening the work and expense in the long run. The team is looking for sponsors that would like to help their search efforts evolve, Kerr-Michaels said.
President Noelle Hamilton-Cambeilh is ecstatic to see newcomers join their monthly search-and-rescue activities.
“I am hoping we can get more and more people to join our team, people that want to help the community,” Hamilton-Cambeilh said. “We are really excited to have people here with a lot of skills. It is just amazing to me how much talent there is on the island, and I am hoping we can tap into it more. I’m really excited for the future.”
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Stephanie Shinno, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0424 or sshinno@thegardenisland.com.
