2016 proved to be a great year for Cochrane Search and Rescue (CSAR).

After a few years of grooming, CSAR President, Andy Potton, says he couldn't be more proud of the team he works along with.

Roughly around 50 volunteer members banked 7259 hours of volunteer time.

"That is all of our events, exercises, and incidents. Incidents are our searches, exercises are our training, and events are our fundraising or where we help other people in our community."

The group just saw an intake of members at the beginning of January; bringing total volunteers up to about 60. Potton, says they are tightening up the membership process and may eventually cap all together.

"We don't want to expand too much and then the organization becomes to unwieldy, typically on a search we get about 25-40% attendance, and also with that increased number there's an incredible strain on leadership, the board, and our training team. Managing groups of 30 plus people in training exercise does become a task in itself. We are focusing very much on quality versus quantity."

2017 has already seen CSAR called out and Potton imagines it will be another busy year.

"Our skill set has become increasingly varied, we are always a secondary search resource and rightly so, because there are paid professionals out there. We are the guys and girls who get called in when the paid professionals need that support and the advantage of volunteer search and resuce are huge; we have great relationships with the Cochrane RCMP and Kananaskis Public Safety."

CSAR was recognized monetarily by a number of community groups this past year.

"We were so incredibly fortunate with the community really supporting us. From the Cochrane Foundation, to the United Commercial Travelers, including the Kimmett Foundation which was an amazing event, and the 100 Women Who Care; between all of those organizations we managed to raise about $55,000."

Each fundraising donation was earmarked to cover off certain projects like equipment improvement, advanced training, software upgrades, and quicker access to mental health resources when needed.

"So many projects the community has helped us fund and it's going to be lasting over many years."

2017 financial goals will still be spent looking for property.

"The last two years have been very much solidifying our organization in the community and really bringing ourselves up-to-date which we are doing. So the next major push will be looking for a patch of land and then beginning fundraising for a building so our vehicles can stay inside and a training room with heating."

Potton feels incredibly blessed by the support CSAR has received from the community.

"We are supported on so many different levels. When we are out and about in our jackets it's lovely to see people smiling at us, thumbs up when we are in our vehicles headed to a search, or coming back we get waves; it goes along a way for our members to be part of something fantastic."