Each fall El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office recognizes the achievements of search and rescue volunteers.

There are approximately 200 registered SAR volunteers throughout El Dorado County who are organized into teams and respond to searches countywide and to mutual aid requests. In any given year, volunteers in El Dorado County respond to more than incidents involving more than 80 missing-lost or injured persons.

Search and rescue is made up of several teams which are necessary to bring a search or rescue to a successful conclusion.

David McCracken is this year’s volunteer of the year. The Cameron Park area resident joined the SAR in 1993.

He has increased his training. Some accomplishments include:

Emergency Medical Technician

Basic Wildland Firefighting

Incident Command Systems

Numerous FEMA courses

Emergency Response to Terrorism

Confined Space Rescue

River and Flood Rescue

First responder Hazardous Materials

Low Angle rescue

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Trainer.

In 2004, McCracken traveled to Alabama in response to Hurricane Ivan with FEMA as a team leader assisting the citizens of Covington County.