The La Plata County Search and Rescue is raising funds to purchase 50 new 800 MHz radios. The group’s existing equipment is outdated, and replacement parts are hard to come by.
Other emergency services such as local fire departments and the Sheriff’s Office communicate on 800 MHz radios, paid for by tax dollars,but no similar tax stream exists for search and rescue teams.
The radios that LPCSAR hopes to purchase are years ahead of the team’s existing radios in terms of technological advancement, leading LPCSAR Director Ron Corkish to compare the old radios to cassette tape players.
“You’d be really hard-pressed to find a cassette player,” Corkish said. “... We have these radios that are 10 years old, and now it's finding batteries, finding antennas, finding replacements, finding places that will work on them. It's just really that technology has moved on.”
The new radios cost $3,500 apiece. The agency has already purchased 20 of the 50 new radios it needs, meaning it still must raise about $105,000.
As Search and Rescue announced its initiative to fundraise for the new radios, Kerry Sprick, chairperson of the Social Advisory Committee at the Glacier Club, was planning the third annual Nashville Songs and Stories Writer’s in the Round event and looking for a charity beneficiary. Sprick connected with LPCSAR, and the 2023 concert raised $70,000 for the first 20 radios.
Sprick and Corkish formally launched the Radios for Rescue campaign in June 2024. Sprick hopes to announce that they have completely funded the radios at the end of this year’s Nashville Songs and Stories event on Aug. 28.
This year’s event features Jeffrey Steele, Wendell Mobley, Danny Myrick and Megan Linville. Steele, Mobley and Myrick have written with some of the biggest names in country music.
After the artists are paid and a donation is given to the Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall, the proceeds from the Nashville Songs and Stories event will go toward the new radios for Search and Rescue.
In the meantime, Sprick is soliciting private donations from a variety of local businesses. As of July 18, Sprick said they have raised about half of the needed funds.
“Everyone I have met has a personal love for search and rescue,” Sprick said. “... They're the group that you never want to need, but when you do, you need them.”
Tickets for the Nashville Songs and Stories Event range from $30 to $75 and are available at durangoconcerts.com. Donations to Radios for Rescue are received at swsar.org and the La Plata County Search and Rescue website laplatasar.org.
