Sunshine Coast Ground Search and Rescue recently held its annual Appreciation Dinner and two awards were presented to two very deserving recipients. Bruce Mitchell was awarded the first ever Search Managers Appreciation Award for his long-time service and dedication to the association.
The second was the Top Pick Award and it is given each year to the member voted by the member’s peers for having given an outstanding contribution to the association throughout the year. This year the award went to Andy Evans, the association’s public relations director and one of two instructors teaching the courses to the new members in training. Evans also contributed many hours in the construction and upgrades to the team’s base, John Hind-Smith Hall, on Solar Road in Wilson Creek.
The ice axe on the Top Pick Award belonged to Capt. Mike Williamson. In 1999 he donated it to Sunshine Coast Ground Search and Rescue to be used as the basis for an award for the team member who was voted to have done the most for the association throughout the previous year. The ice axe was refurbished and mounted on a mahogany board by the late Harry Almond, the association’s long-time member and president. As it says on the plaque, it is “awarded annually to a member of the Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue Society for outstanding contribution, dedication, and commitment.” In 1999, Williamson was the Sunshine Coast Regional District emergency program coordinator and he made the first presentation to Bill Lawson, the first search manager, in May 2000.
Previous recipients of the award were: Bill Lawson (1999), Harry Almond (2000), Sue Duxbury (2001), Robert Allen (2002), Rod Moorcroft and Megan O’Donnell jointly (2003), Peter Ronning (2004), Alec Tebbutt (2005), Stephanie Read (2006), Jim Janke (2007), Eileen Bonaguro (2008), Jim Janke and Mike MacKown jointly (2009), Sheree Haydu (2010), Eileen Bonaguro [posthumously] (2011), Alec Tebbutt (2012), Rod Moorcroft (2013), Richard Till (2014), Jason Haines (2015), Don Neville (2016), Derek Apple (2017), and Ian Martin (2018).
For more information about Sunshine Coast Ground Search and Rescue, visit: www.sunshinecoastsar.ca or on Facebook at: facebook.com/sunshinecoastsar or on Instagram at: instagram.com/explore/tags/sunshinecoastsearchandrescue
– By Robert Allen
