The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with the Kitsap County Department of Emergency (DOE) management held their 17th annual awards banquet Jan. 29, to recognize the service and dedication of its many volunteers in the Explorer Search and Rescue (ESAR) organization.
During the banquet, three exceptional ESAR members were recognized for their commitment and dedication to the organization.
The Jim Gideon Search and Rescue Volunteer of the Year Award is presented annually to worthy recipients who demonstrate the same high standard, personal sacrifice, perseverance and selfless contribution to the search and rescue community that Gideon did during his tenure as Search and Rescue Coordinator for Kitsap County from 1984 until his passing in November 1992.
Amanda Mergens, Kate Cummings and Sophie Holt were this year’s recipients. Mergens and Cummings were the adult category and Holt in the youth category.
Mergens is an engineer at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard who has volunteered with ESAR since 2003. During that time she had logged 3,560 hours of time to the unit.
Cummings works for Kitsap County and has volunteered for 2,788 hours since beginning her involvement with the unit in 2002.
Holt was also awarded the Meredith Myers Leadership Scholarship Award, named in honor of Myers who was very active not only in Search and Rescue but also other aspects of DEM and the Kitsap County Fair and Rodeo Board from 1994 until her passing in 2010.
Holt is an 18-year-old home school student from South Kitsap who has volunteered with ESAR since 2011. Sophie had already volunteered for more than 950 hours over that span.
The Kitsap County ESAR Unit is an outdoor oriented volunteer service organization that has been volunteering its time and skills to the community since 1978. It is an organization comprised of teenage searchers and adult advisors. The primary focus is on general ground search techniques and building leadership skills of youth.
They are the most active unit for searches within Kitsap County and the program is recognized as beneficial for both teens and adults.
