San Gorgonio Search & Rescue Team Celebrates 50th Anniversary
Submitted by trevor on Tue, 2008-04-08 07:44.“Out of Tragedy Is Born a Team”
“YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHO HAS YOUR BACK and you have to trust him,” became the unspoken mantra of the newly formed San Gorgonio Search and Rescue Team.
In February of 1958 a group of students and their parents traveled to Forest Falls, California to play in Mill Creek. One of the students, Donald Burns, wandered off and fell over three hundred feet down the face of Big Falls near the picnic area where his friends and family played. Donald miraculously survived his fall, but was left stranded and severely injured on a high ledge over one hundred feet from the base of the falls. Deputy Sheriff Willard Farquhar of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department was the first to respond to the scene. As night enveloped the falls, Donald could be heard screaming over the roar of the water.
Attempts to reach Donald by Deputy Farquhar and other Sheriff’s personnel were unsuccessful since San Bernardino County had no experienced rescue personnel or climbing equipment available. Volunteer firemen from Forest Falls and some rescue personnel from Norton Air Force Base also made rescue attempts to save Donald. They worked for twenty-four hours straight to reach Donald, but no one was able to get closer than about fifty feet. It was said that one rescuer could see Donald feebly waving his hand to him. But all attempts were unsuccessful. Conditions in the area were cold and foggy overnight. The ropes were freezing with the spray of water from the falls and the rocks in the area were coated with a thick layer of ice.
New Team T-shirts: 50th Anniversary Edition
Submitted by trevor on Sat, 2008-04-19 15:57.Check out the new San G SAR Team t-shirts!
Shirts will be available to the public soon. Team members order your shirts NOW.
Contact Tim Murone for details.
Thanks to Larry Reinhart for the stellar artwork.
50th Anniversary Celebration tickets and book order forms.
Submitted by trevor on Tue, 2008-04-08 14:50.Click the following links to download forms for ordering your tickets to the 50th anniversary celebration, and for purchasig your copy of the San Gorgonio SAR history book.
Annual Johnston and Calvert Memorial Golf Tournemant
Submitted by selliott on Mon, 2007-09-24 08:57.Please join us on Monday Oct 1st for our annual Golf Tournement.
Thanks to our sponosrs:
Platnium
Larry Jacinto Construction
ACH Mechanical
Gold
Redlands Plumbing Heating and AC
Shandin Hill Golf Club
San Bernardino
Rgistration 11:00 am
Tee Off; 12:30
Raffle Prizes and goodies
$375 per team $100.00 Individual
Contact: Bob Blanck email:rmblank@yahoo.com (909-327-1441) Get Registration Form HERE
042207 Earth Day
Submitted by shannon on Thu, 2007-04-26 10:24.National Earth Day 042207
Nature does nothing uselessly.
Aristotle, Politics
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)
The Valley of the Falls Search and Rescue Team had the opportunity to give back to the community on National Earth Day. The team worked with numerous members of the community and public to clean up Big Falls, Big Falls parking lot and the Falls Recreation Picnic area.
The Falls Recreation area is a very busy place. The area includes the Vivian Creek Trailhead, which is the shortest and steepest route to the summit of San Gorgonio at 11,500 feet elevation. As you know, when these areas get so much use, you will often see graffiti on the buildings and rocks. These street paintings (Vandalism) is often hard to get to, and hard to remove. The normal process by the National Forest is to paint over the graffiti with a rock gray paint, but this does not even come close to appearing natural.
040107 Espinoza Search
Submitted by shannon on Mon, 2007-04-09 08:29.Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.
Malcolm Forbes
US art collector, author, & publisher (1919 - 1990)
Have you noticed that our ability to conduct effective search and rescue operations in this county has been greatly increased by technology. I had an opportunity to utilize some of this new technology on my latest call-out.
Night Vision was something we all had heard about over the last couple of years, but never had access to it because of the expense. Well, our own Sheriff’s Aviation Division has just about finished all of their training to get the night vision program up and running. This new technology came into play with a 15 year old missing female hiker in the Dry Lake area of the San Gorgonio Wilderness on April Fools Day.
The sentencing day for Joseph Tidwell finally came
Submitted by ellyn on Sat, 2007-01-06 23:25.
Thursday, January 4, 2007. 902 days have gone by since that tragic morning that forever changed our lives. Prior to sentencing, family and team members had an opportunity to express to the court and to Joseph Tidwell a glimpse into the pain and suffering inflicted on so many.
The judge denied a motion by Joseph Tidwell's attorney, Mr. Stillman, for a new trial. Joseph Tidwell was given the maximum sentence of 45 years and 8 months to life, with the possibility of parole after 45 years. We truly appreciate the support Deputy District Attorney Alex Martinez has offered our team and his outstanding commitment to pursuing justice in this difficult case. We also extend our heartfelt thanks to all who supported the San Gorgonio Search and Rescue Team family with their thoughts, prayers, and actions over the past two and a half years. These times truly reflect that we need each other. Let's celebrate the lives of Phil Calvert and Scott Johnston by making them proud of who we are and what we do.
For further information on the case, go to www.hidesertstar.com<http://www.hidesertstar.com/> on Saturday; their reporters did a great job covering the trial and sentencing proceedings.
For more information on the accident go to: http://sgsar.org/?q=node/2
Team thanks community
Submitted by selliott on Sun, 2006-09-17 06:24.
The members of the San Gorgonio Search and Rescue team held a picnic in Redlands to thank all of the supporters of the team. Through their generous donations, we were able to purchase a new truck. This new 4 X 4 truck (Pictured abovve with team and donors that attended the picnic) will be used to transport tem members and equipment to searches. We would like to thank all of the donors that helped us purchase our new vehicle! The pictures of the picnic, the new vehicle and the new surburban the Sherrif purchased for the team can be found here http://www.sgsar.org/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=44
San G Passes Team Rope Test
Submitted by admin on Sat, 2006-08-19 14:36.
San Gorgonio Search and Rescue Team passed the team rope re-certification test to continue to be one of the county team's certified to perform technical rope rescue. Thanks to the whole team for their commitment and time to prepare for this test. Thanks to the ROCC committee for all of theri kind workds and feedback. The pictures are now posted
MELISSA FOO SEARCH
Submitted by admin on Mon, 2006-08-07 07:53.By Shannon Kovich, SARTech II San G/VTF SAR Al Franken
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from. We all in the SAR community understand mistakes, it is our business. We try to teach the public those minimal survival tips in a hope that someday, when they get themselves in a survival position, it will be useful to them. I have no ideal of how many people in the national forest, self rescue, because we don’t get those calls. The husband of Melissa Foo took the right steps. He contacted Law Enforcement right after a quick search of the area for his wife.