Training Room North Dartmoor Search & Rescue Team

Aim

Mountain rescue volunteers sometimes need to train indoors. Please help us create a training room so we become more skilled to help you.

What we do

We rescue walkers lost or injured on Dartmoor, carry out searches for missing people across Devon and support communities during flood events or heavy snow.

What the Public say about us

  ‘Thanks to everyone involved. I'm home safe and sound now recovering at my friend’s house in London. The leg is much better but my pride is still slightly bruised. Very professional and witty group of rescuers, thanks for all the chocolate and hot juice.’

‘We cannot thank you enough for the brilliant job you performed extracting my wife from Skaigh Wood, Sticklepath after her accident.’

‘Thank you for travelling all that way to offer assistance, this country would not run without our teams of volunteers.’

‘Thanks for coming all that way to help Yorkshire. We are very thankful for people like you. Heroes!’

‘Great work, one more life saved thanks to you all’

Why we need an indoor training room

We’re not a new organisation, we’ve been rescuing walkers on Dartmoor since the 1960’s, but like many professionals there is a need for us to be more highly trained and to have more specialist skills. We need to ensure:

• our medical knowledge is up to date and relevant
• our steep ground rope systems are safe and follow the correct standards
• we can work alongside the Fire and Rescue Service at times of flood and are trained to the same standard.
• we’re utilising modern technology such as computerised search programmes and GPS tracking radios.

We train every week for about 3 hours. Often we’re outside in the dark, wind and rain which is good practise for call outs, but there are times when we need to be inside to watch training videos, to learn the theory behind some of our procedures or to practise using equipment.

Why we’re crowdfunding

We need your help to create a training room in the industrial unit we bought in November 2013. We need to create a training room that is comfortable, warm and has space for seating so we can:

• listen to and watch presentations
• practise casualty treatment
• practise using specialist equipment
• learn new skills

Our success so far

We’ve not only been successful in buying a building but we’ve also recently received grants from the Big Lottery’s Awards for All and donations from the Council’s Locality Budget, The Norman Family Trust and Eaton Aerospace Ltd which has meant we’ve been able to start building an equipment store and a drying room and arrange for a mezzanine floor to be installed. Unfortunately we don’t have enough money to create a training room which is why we’ve launched this crowd funding appeal.

Who we are

We’re a team of 35 volunteers all with a day job and family commitments but as a team are on call 365 days a year, 24 /7. We are called out by the Police or the Ambulance Service in response to a 999 call that someone is lost, missing or injured in a remote area.

Over the last 12 months we assisted with 24 rescues, with 5 ‘call-outs’ in 10 days over the Easter period. These included:

• a missing elderly person in rural North Devon,
• a lady with an injured leg who couldn’t be reached by the Ambulance Service,
• a group of young people who requested assistance whilst on a moorland expedition.

We also had a busy Christmas / New Year. As part of Mountain Rescue England and Wales we occasionally support teams in different parts of the country. Some of our team members spent three days over the festive period assisting those affected by the floods in and around York.

We also support local and regional events. The biggest event we support is the annual Ten Tors Challenge organised by the Army; 2400 teenagers take part in a 2 day expedition of 35, 45 or 55 miles. That weekend alone we provide over 1,000 volunteer hours of safety cover and rescue activity.

Although we support the emergency services, like all Mountain Rescue Teams, we are a Registered Charity and are entirely dependant on donations, grants and fund raising activities to cover our annual running costs of around £20,000 and to fund all purchases.

and finally, thank you to all our supporters  we wouldn't exist without you.

This project successfully funded on 29th May 2016