2015 Awards of Excellence Recipients
Award of Excellence for Education and Training
Photo by National Search and Rescue Secretariat
Bob Ayres
Canadian Coast Guard
This year's recipient is Mr. Bob Ayres, of the Canadian Coast Guard Western Region.
The Canadian Coast Guard has a national rescue specialist program thanks to the efforts of a few individuals. Bob Ayres is one of those who, with relentless dedication, developed and improved the training and education of the medics serving on board Canadian Coast Guard vessels. He was one of the founding fathers of a program that helped the Canadian Coast Guard transform its level of service from a commercial merchant marine organization into a professional search and rescue service.
Early on his 33 year career with the Coast Guard, and thanks to his medic training, he identified a standard that later developed into a national standard, and became a SAR medical training officer. He pioneered the Rescue Specialist program and over the next 21 years, trained hundreds of rescue specialists within Western Region.
The Canadian Coast Guard now has a rescue specialist on board all of its stations and vessels. These individuals provide crucial first aid for the crews at sea and are a necessary personnel in the effective delivery of SAR on the oceanic waters of Canada and the Great Lakes. Mr. Ayres was part of the team responsible for setting a standard and creating the training program for these medics.
He continued to evolve the program, ensuring the best service was being provided and finding solutions when the program encountered any challenges. The Rescue Specialist program is recognized as a highly valued entity within the Canadian Coast Guard, and the CASTRACK system he developed is also considered to be simple and innovative solution to tracking casualties in a major marine disaster, a system that has been presented and replicated in other countries around the world.
He was charged and developed the Rescue Swimmer program, and the hundreds of personnel he trained have in turn saved many lives over the course of time.
Award of Excellence for Innovation
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Stephen Waller
Canadian Coast Guard
As a result of his 20 year commitment to the improvement of SAR coordination at the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, and 34 years of service in the Canadian Coast Guard, Mr. Stephen Waller, is this year's recipient of the Award of Excellence for Innovation.
Mr. Waller began his career as a maritime search and rescue coordinator in the JRCC Halifax in 1995. When JRCC Halifax was required to modernize its communication and coordination element, Mr. Waller embraced new technology by designing a new user interface for use by SAR mission coordinators during mission coordinated in JRCC Halifax.
Mr. Waller also created a data base management system that was integrated into the SAR mission management system, which in turn greatly increased the interoperability with SAR partners.
The interface he designed is the model being looked at for adoption in other rescue coordination centers around the country and other government operation centers.
Mr. Waller's efforts have improved interoperability between SAR organizations by giving the SAR mission coordinators the ability to find and contact responders, agencies or other responsible parties at the push of a button. Communication is a key role in SAR and as demonstrated by Mr. Waller's efforts, efficiency in coordination is the cornerstone to a successful mission, and his work is having a long term impact on how SAR missions are coordinated throughout Canada.
Award of Excellence for Leadership
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Dave Brewer
North Shore Rescue, British Columbia Search and Rescue Association
This year's recipient is Mr. Dave Brewer, of North Shore Rescue, British Columbia Search and Rescue Association.
A founding SAR volunteer member of North Shore Rescue in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Dave Brewer has provided 50 years of dedicated service to SAR and participated in over 600 missions. He wrote and published a reference guide “How to Organize a Search and Rescue” for SAR operations management that has been distributed nationally and internationally.
He formed the BC Provincial SAR Advisory Committee, made up of volunteer representatives that were appointed by government to represent regional issues on a provincial scale. Their mandate is to make improvements to the SAR program provincially.
Through this work and his vision, the Provincial Emergency Program – now known as Emergency Management British Columbia, there are 80 SAR groups in BC with roughly 2,500 volunteers responding annually to approximately 1,400 operations.
His vision and passion have provided the foundation to develop the BC SAR program into one of the best, both paid and volunteer. From his initial vision for improved SAR management, his role as the volunteer SAR Chief for BC, development of the Provincial SAR Advisory Committee, the development of an internationally respected SAR Review process and the formation of the British Columbia Search and Rescue Association, he has shaped volunteer response and government investment into doing what is right for the subject of a SAR operation.
Mr. Brewer has done his work entirely as a volunteer, working in partnership with government, requesting SAR agencies and other stakeholders. Many times convincing government as to the value of a strong, capable SAR program provincially, nationally and internationally.
New Zealand saw the impact and the vision of Mr. Brewer, and sought his expertise with the rebuilding of their national SAR Program.
By forcing those around him to “envision within the theatre of your mind” to work collaboratively as a province and as a country, search and rescue is better because of Mr. Brewer. His impact is shown each day a SAR operation occurs in British Columbia, where risk assessments, hazard analysis and strong SAR management leadership help to conclude an incident.
Award of Excellence for Research
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Roland Hanel
Ottawa Fire Services
As a result of his lasting commitment to search and rescue in Canada, and more specifically for his original research on the use of SAR volunteers during disasters, this year's award is being presented to Mr. Roland Hanel, member of Ottawa Fire Services.
Roland Hanel has been involved in various disciplines of search and rescue since the 1990s, and was a ground SAR volunteer for over 10 years. Blending his strong educational background with his practitioner's knowledge of SAR, he completed a 100+ page research project for his Master's emergency management thesis, a report focused on the contribution of volunteer SAR teams to search and rescue in disasters.
This effort, sponsored by the Search and Rescue Volunteer Association of Canada, constitutes original research now publicly available. Mr. Hanel surveyed volunteer search and rescue leaders, police & fire services, community emergency managers, as well as government officials responsible for tasking volunteer resources during disasters in Ontario. Through this work, he identified challenges and opportunities to optimize the use of Canada's SAR volunteers during disasters.
This research gives policy makers and volunteer leaders across Canada the tools to bridge the gaps between official services and volunteer responders, and promotes a sustained and balanced development of the capabilities and deployment of SAR volunteers.
Mr. Hanel's work will contribute to the improvement of emergency management and SAR capabilities, with implications for volunteer retention and morale and resource allocation across Canada. It will support a Canada-wide dialogue on the best use of volunteers during disasters, and lead to further discussion on evidence-based resource allocation models. It will benefit all citizens of this country for years to come in contributing to a more robust and effective disaster response infrastructure, potentially saving lives and reducing suffering.
Award of Excellence for Exemplary Service
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Harry Blackmore
Search and Rescue Volunteer Association of Canada
This year's award is being presented to Mr. Harry Blackmore, of the Search and Rescue Volunteer Association of Canada.
Mr. Blackmore is a longstanding member of the Rovers SAR team in Newfoundland and Labrador; has served as President of the NL SAR Association; was a member of the Ground SAR Council of Canada; the National Recreational Boating Advisory Council; and for the past 10 years was the president of the Search and Rescue Volunteer Association of Canada – also known as SARVAC -, an association that regroups all provincial/territorial ground SAR associations.
During this time, his leadership united all ground SAR associations, establishing a vision, mandate and strategic plan for SARVAC. This resulted in tremendous gains for ground search and rescue volunteers and their integration within the National SAR Program. His professionalism, dedication, and inspiration to others have successfully elevated the association as a recognized and credible partner in SAR response and prevention.
Two key initiatives credited to his leadership are the development and publication of the National Competency Standard for ground search and rescue operations, and the roll out of the AdventureSmart program - a prevention program aimed at educating the public to “Get informed and go outdoors”.
He leveraged the expertise and experience of SAR volunteers in delivery AdventureSmart programs, and mobilized this community to become more engaged in prevention. Since 2009, over 100,000 people have received targeted outreach programs through SARVAC, and AdventureSmart has gained national standing as a core program for search and rescue.
Harry Blackmore's dedication and ability to positively influence others enabled SARVAC to present a common voice in representing the needs of ground SAR volunteers. He was relentless in his pursuit of appropriate recognition for this exceptional cadre of men and women, and in 2014, the federal government recognized SARVAC as one of the three national SAR volunteer associations, providing tax credits to their membership, a process that is now being followed at the provincial level.
In 2015, Mr. Blackmore's longstanding efforts to achieve federal support for the national association was achieved. Based on the collection and synthesis of data from teams across the country, a strong business case was advanced to showcase the value of SARVAC to the National SAR Program. His ability to highlight the benefits to a national approach for ground SAR volunteers was successful, and the association is now receiving sustainable funding which places it on the same level as its sister volunteer associations for air and marine SAR, in order to represent the best interest of its members.
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