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Saskatoon Search and Rescue launches Project Lifesaver

For many years SSAR has utilized volunteers to provide search and rescue efforts and assistance to organizations such as the Saskatoon Police Service, the Saskatoon Emergency Measures Organization and the RCMP. Over the past four years, almost 75 per cent of their activations have involved individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism or other cognitive disorders that are known to cause wandering.

Project Lifesaver is a program that may help to reduce those numbers, SSAR says. A participant in the Project Lifesaver program wears a wristband that emits an individualized radio-frequency signal. In the event that a participant wanders, SSAR members who are trained as Electronic Search Specialists enter the frequency into a receiver and can use the signal to search for, and locate, the missing person.

Initial funding for the project came from fundraising initiatives conducted by the Saskatoon Police Service Foundation and additional funding came from Dakota Dunes Community Development Corporation, SaskTel and the SaskTel TelCare program, as well as individual donations.