The 麻豆社国产Search and Rescue team will have a new home in 2026, but what exactly will that look like?
The 麻豆社国产 took a tour of current compound and sat down with the project managers to discuss the plans for their new home at the 麻豆社国产Municipal Airport – Don Patrick Field.
Their current base
Located opposite Brennan Park Recreation Centre lies the present home of SSAR’s compound.
Tucked into a block shared with the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations at 42000 Loggers Lane, the SSAR compound is far from what you’d imagine when it comes to its size.
For a volunteer organization with 60 members, that does around two to three rescues a day on a weekend at the peak of summer, they share a parking lot with Ministry workers and have to expertly reverse three of their cars through one garage door to keep them out of the elements.
This includes their flashy Land Rover Defender 130 that they won through the 2023 Defender Service Awards.
There’s also only one toilet shared amongst all members, and no shower spaces to clean up after a big [and often dirty] day of rescues.
To store some of their other vehicles and boating equipment away from the elements, SSAR erected a tent structure in 2021 made out of two 40-foot containers with a tented dome as the roof.
It’s a small but mighty home for a team that is so integral to the community, and as they get ready to move into their new space, it has given them perspective on the “must-haves” for their new facility.
“We've been presenting our space needs to the District for a number of years, and then they started partnering with us to help us with finding more space. That's why we're moving to the airport,” SSAR project manager Cindy Welsh told The 麻豆社国产.
“There are a number of things we're looking for in a future home, and that is more training space, and we want to be able to secure all of our vehicles and our trailers inside.”
麻豆社国产SAR is moving locations because the piece of land they are currently located on has been sold. As such, they have to relocate by July 2026.
They plan to be in their new home by April 2026.
The new space
Alongside colleague Brendan White, the duo put together a “dream vision” for what they’d like their new compound to look like at the 麻豆社国产Airport.
“Brendan and I have been working together on this project for six years, plus I think. We started in 2019, and when you do something that's this big and this important, it takes a long time,” Welsh said.
The project will be built in two phases; Phase 1 will be a replica of their current compound, with Phase 2 acting as their “long-term dream” home.
“What we're creating at the airport is essentially functioning to the exact same capability as we have in this building. We're recreating what we have now in the near future, and Phase 2 is the rest of the dream building vision, which we don't have enough money for yet,” Welsh said.
White described the Phase 2 building as a “downscaled fire hall.”
“There will be multiple bays, and the vehicle bays we'll be able to drive in and out of, so we'll have drive-through access to it,” he said.
“Because that's one of the issues we have now, is that every time we park vehicles, we have to back them in.”
The dream compound is a two to five-year plan, White said.
Included in the building will be gear rooms and battery storage rooms as well as drying areas for clothing and equipment.
“There's a big, huge training space that we can use in a variety of ways. A quiet room we can use if we have family who are quite distraught or concerned, we can bring them to a quiet place to be counselled, or just to have people around them that they are comfortable with,” Welsh said.
“We're going to have a lounge area and a kitchen for our members and then bathrooms and change rooms because, interestingly, now, we share one toilet with 60 of our members.”
The duo said that the new compound would also provide freedom of space to be able to operate without worrying about interfering with neighbouring businesses.
“If we are called in on a weekday, we're coming in here and we conflict with the Ministry staff who are operating here, so we have to work around that. So having something like this out there gives us freedom of space to move about without having to worry about that,” White said.
Community help
White, who is the principal at PBX Engineering in his day job, said he’s been using his connections to seek out donated time and services from local businesses to help build the compound.
“When we were first kicking this off in 2019 and we got closer to knowing kind of what we were doing I reached out to all the consultants I worked with and was like, 'Hey, are you guys on board' and there was just an instant 'Yep!',” he said.
“A lot of them were like, 'Yeah, you picked up my buddy off this trail at one point, or you've saved this guy that I know, or my son was picked up by you guys.’ So it was just immediate [support from people].
“There hasn't been anyone that's been like, ‘not today’ ... it's really been supportive, which has been awesome.”
But they are still in need of help.
“Our fundraising team is developing their plan for the campaign for Phase 2. This whole sort of timeline for phase one was kind of our reaction to the fact that we need to leave this location next year by July 2026,” White said.
“We're going to be looking at paving in probably in the new year. That's one of our things we actually put on our like needs list ... to pave the driveway and the aprons all around our buildings. And then the other one is security fencing.
“[They’re] big ticket items for us, we're doing some outreach on that at the moment, trying to find someone who wants to support that.”
If you get lost, SSAR will rescue you for free
Did you know that all rescues SSAR perform are free.
“Through the provincial Emergency Management Program, they cover all costs for rescues,” White said.
“We encourage everyone to call us sooner rather than later. It's easier to pick you up in the daytime rather than at night. It's easier for us to mobilize and get to you before you've got too far or your condition has gotten that much worse that you're now critical versus something that was a little bit more stable.”
Visit the for more information on the move and how you can get involved.
