South Swindon MP Sir Robert Buckland has named Wiltshire Search and Rescue as his Charity of the Week.
He described the organisation as "...a brilliant voluntary specialist search and rescue team, made up of over 70 members, which exists to find vulnerable and missing people."
Locally-based volunteers are trained to official UK Lowland Rescue National Standards and fulfil the same role as Mountain Rescue, Coastguard Rescue, and the RNLI.
They work closely with all the emergency services in Wiltshire and support neighbouring Search and Rescue teams. Volunteers from WILSAR are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Last year, Wiltshire Search and Rescue were deployed a total of 61 times, assisting with searches for people deemed High Risk Missing Persons on 53 occasions.
The team also ran 299 training sessions lasting 1,965 hours, covering dozens of disciplines and specialisations including four-by-four driving, missing person behaviour, helicopter winch training, and casualty care.
As well as callouts and exercises, volunteers attended 459 other events lasting 1,930 hours to keep the charity running, including fundraising activities, management committee meetings and maintenance of vehicles and equipment.
Wiltshire Search & Rescue is a non-profit making organisation and relies on its own fundraising along with donations, grants, and sponsorship from the public and companies. All members are volunteers, and the charity makes no charge for its services.
To find out how you can support Wiltshire Search and Rescue, or to learn more about volunteering, people are asked to visit https://www.wilsar.org.uk/fundraising/
Wiltshire Search and Rescue on Facebook can be followed at https://www.facebook.com/wilsarteam and https://twitter.com/WiltshireSAR
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