A mentally disabled man is lost in the urban sprawl of Tidewater. The family calls the police, and the police call emergency management. The Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference is alerted. Team members scour the swamp while nervous state troopers wait on dry land. Meanwhile, other rescue group members go door to door asking residents if they have seen the missing man, handing out fliers with his photo. At base, another group calls local hospitals and community centers.
Finally, success. The man is found watching cartoons at a local community center, and the area's residents breathe a sigh of relief.
This is the work of Blue Ridge Mountain Rescue Group -- or one part of it, anyway.
According to Charlottesville resident Jason Dalton, a 10 year veteran of the team, urban searches are not uncommon for the rescue group. Wilderness searches, however, comprise most of the call outs, he said.
The rescue group's purpose is to "provide search and rescue to the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland through a conference of search and rescue groups," according to rescue group president Brandon Rogers, a fourth-year Engineering student.
The group often gets called out for "lost hikers, lost hunters or lost kids," Rogers said. They also get called out to find Alzheimer's patients and "little planes that fly below radar levels" and thus are difficult to locate when they go down, he added.
The group is especially active during natural disasters and during the winter, when the weather poses extra dangers for lost persons, Rogers said.
The group typically is not involved in criminal investigations because it "is not trained to deal with crime scenes," Rogers said. At times, though, the group does take over an investigation from the police, Rogers said.
Second-year Nursing student Connor Ginley was part of such a search near Richmond over the week of Fall Break. "The guy had been lost for three days, and the police had given the responsibility for the search over to ASRC. Everyone was really excited," Ginley said. "I got to search with a dog all night long. It was mostly people from [the rescue group] writing the tasks for everyone, and in five or six hours we found the guy."
Ginley remembered the amazing feeling. "Sixty people there with the one common purpose -- it's a pretty powerful thing," he said.
The group consists entirely of volunteers. Ginley noted the "dedication of the people who run it -- it takes a lot of time."
Rogers admitted that the rescue group is hard work, but he also described the social side to the group. He detailed a "trip to Sugar Hollow to do some fun ropes training" that involved zip lines.
In addition to the social antics, the group provides members with very valuable basic survival skills, Rogers said. Members learn to navigate in the woods with topographic expertise and also learn basic radio search skills.
Rogers said the hierarchy of the rescue group allows for participation from a diverse group of people that includes students, faculty and community members.
The rescue group will accept new members any time of the year, but its primary recruitment period is in the fall because of its careful training schedule.
During the fall, the group has a one-day training session where participants can learn the "basic skills to respond to a search in about six hours of training," Rogers said. Those who want to attain a higher level of specialization can train during the fall semester every Saturday and Wednesday to become a field team member. Field team members are trained in CPR and first aid.
For the truly dedicated, another semester of training in the spring teaches the skills needed to lead a team in a rescue mission. Rogers said he encourages members to continue through the field team leader training. Beyond becoming a team leader, members can specialize even further according to their strengths and interests.
Rogers said the rescue group has about 130 members on the roster, 30-50 of whom are active. The members can dedicate as much time as they want, with opportunities to act as dispatchers or specialize in technical processes like rope work.
Rescue members often face a hefty responsibility as they move up the ranks of the organization. Dalton's involvement in the search for the Tidewater man also included heading another search and rescue team along with two state troopers. The rescue group, though, provides all the training necessary to participate and lead the group.
The rescue group is part of a nine- group team called the Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference. The conference is an offshoot of the Blue Ridge Mountain Rescue Group, chair Lauren Fernandez said.
"Alumni from [the Blue Ridge Mountain Rescue Group] moved to other places and founded other search and rescue groups," Fernandez said.
Fernandez heads the Board of Members that is "responsible for the training and administration standards." She is a volunteer like all of the other conference members.
The group is funded by donations from private sources, including those from a fundraiser 5K at the University on March 29. This will be the fourth year that the rescue group has organized the race, and Rogers noted that the late March date might be enough to avoid the notoriously unpredictable spring storms.
The Blue Ridge Mountain Rescue Group offers an opportunity for anyone to get involved with what Ginley says is "the coolest experience." Extreme sports fans can enjoy the "zip lines over a raging river" and rappelling, while the less adventurous can stick to the important tasks at base, Rogers said. "The important thing about [the Blue Ridge Mountain Rescue Group] is that we have what other outdoor groups do and you can contribute to saving lives," he said.
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