Kamloops Search and Rescue (KSAR) is a volunteer search and rescue team, offering life-saving service to the Kamloops community and beyond.
David Potter, Volunteer Rope Discipline Lead for KSAR, applied to New Gold’s community investment program seeking funds to replace used and worn-out rescue ropes. When asked about this donation, David explained that it helps support their organizational goal of keeping staff and the community safe. “I want to make sure our rope team is well trained and has the newest and safest gear to make sure they are safe, as well as the subject they are rescuing. Receiving a donation from New Gold’s New Afton Mine, to buy new equipment will help us reach this goal of keeping our team and community safer.”
Keeping the community safe is something that New Afton Mine’s Mobile Maintenance Mechanic, Ashton Babuin practices on-site and beyond. As a volunteer with KSAR, Ashton says that he feels “honored and proud to be a part of an organization that cares about the community in such a capacity that it is willing to make such a generous donation. It goes a long way in increasing KSAR’s capacity for rescues and decreasing the financial burden on an organization primarily funded by donations and managed by volunteers.”
Volunteering requires significant dedication, especially within emergency services, as many New Afton staff know. There are no shortage of events and added stresses but, through it all, Ashton focuses on “the gratification of serving the community and the satisfaction of receiving positive feedback from the subjects that you are able to help.”
KSAR is called out to assist the RCMP, BC Ambulance Service, BC Coroners Office, and Kamloops Fire Rescue and provides assistance during extreme weather emergencies, events such as wildfires and floods. With specialty teams trained in swift water rescue, rope rescue, and snowmobile rescue, this volunteer group provides mutual aid support to other search and rescue groups throughout the BC Interior. In 2022 alone, KSAR responded to 56 events, with volunteers contributing 2,595 hours of service.
New Gold is dedicated to creating sustainable benefits for our host communities and is proud to support KSAR with funding to purchase new equipment, helping to ensure they can continue providing life-saving service in the Kamloops region. To learn more about the Community Investment Program, please visit our website.
