MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Marquette County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue acquired a new piece of equipment.
The new equipment includes components to help with medical care and extraction in case of an emergency.
“It has a backboard, it’s designed to if someone needs to be fully immobilized we can put that patient right in the back,” said Lt. Errol Lukkainen from the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Division. “It has a storage box underneath that we can put some of our medical and search and rescue supplies in, and there’s a couple different accessories where we can put oxygen and a litter attendant also in there.”
But the Sheriff’s office didn’t do it alone, it had help from a coalition of local outdoors and snowmobiling clubs who helped raise $4,000 of the $4,200 needed for the purchase.
“The search and rescue teaches out snowmobile and ATV safety course, so our club likes to give back every year. So we reached out to them and asked if there was something we could contribute to the search and rescue group,” said Craig Wilson the president of the Forsyth Township Snowmobile Club. “We reached out to the other local groups around us and they all without hesitation chipped in and we definitely cleared the tops of the telephone poles and made it to the moon on this one and we were able to provide them with something they hopefully never have to use.”
Marquette County Sheriff Greg Zyburt said contributions like these affect the whole community.
“If you’re out there in the woods, be it snowshoeing, or snowmobiling, or whatever the activity, you never plan on something bad happening,” said Zyburt. “So it’s important for us to be able to respond and have the equipment necessary to help these people.”
The Marquette County Sheriff’s Office also urges everyone to enjoy the outdoors safely.
