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DECEMBER 27, 2013
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Vol. 61, Issue 250
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Locals search for missing Canadian down under Five East Kootenay search and rescue experts have returned after a search in Australia for a missing Ontario man
SALLY MACDONALD Townsman Staff
After several weeks searching the Australian alpine, five searchers from the East Kootenay are back home, having found no sign of Prabhdeep Srawn. From Kimberley Search and Rescue, Scott MacLeod and Seb Martinez; from Fernie Search and Rescue, Bernie Palmer and Tom Hopkins; and from Sparwood Search and Rescue, Charmaine Lingard all volunteered their time to help Srawn’s family find out what happened to the young man. In May, Srawn went alone on a hiking trip to Australia’s highest mountain, Mount Kosciuzsko, at 2,228 metres in elevation. Srawn, a 25-year-old military reservist, had been studying in Australia. But soon after he set out on the hiking expe-
dition, a snowstorm set in, dumping up to 30 centimetres of snow. Srawn has not been seen or heard from since. After searches in Australia found no trace of Srawn, his family asked B.C. Search and Rescue members if they could participate in an independent search. Five East Kootenay Search and Rescue members put up their hands to join the team of 18 volunteers. The Srawn family paid for their travel expenses. Led by Vancouver’s Martin Colwell of SAR Technology, the group left at the end of November. After flying into Sydney, the group piled into a van donated by a local member of the Sikh community and drove to Jindabyne, the town closest to Australia’s high alpine.
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East Kootenay searchers Scott MacLeod, Charmaine Lingard and Tom Hopkins gather at Cranbrook’s airport after returning from a volunteer trip to Australia to search for a 25-year-old missing Ontario man.
Fundraiser derby back for another year ARNE PETRYSHEN Townsman Staff
The fifth annual Family Fishing Derby is just over a month away and organizers are already getting ready for the event. Last year the event had to be cancelled because of unseasonably warm weather. The derby takes place on Horseshoe Lake — last year the ice was too thin to safely hold the event. This year however, Shane Westle, founder and event co-ordinator, said the ice is looking
good this year. “There’s already 12 inches of ice on the lake right now,” he said, so it is looking good for this year. “There’s way more ice than we had last year and a little over a month to go.” The derby is on Feb. 10, which is also Family Day in B.C. Westle started the derby in honour of a friend who passed away from cancer. “It was about six years ago when Mira Morrison passed away,” Westle said. Her hus-
band, also a close friend of Westle also recently passed away. This year there is a new event in their honour: the Morrison shooting gallery. The derby brings in people of all ages and Westle said they expect 1,500 people to come out. “We get all ages, from newborns all the way up to people in their 90s,” he said. “We have a lot of different things going on during the day. A lot of different games for the kids. We have wom-
en’s ski jumping and a best dressed dog contest.” The Fresh Water Fisheries Society is coming to teach kids how to ice fish. Then there are all sorts of other activities including toboggan races, milk jug bowling, best catch fish decorating, snow painting, tug of war and snowball toss. Every year they also do a draw to send a kid to Disneyland. The trip is donated every year by Dacota Freight, along with $1,000 spending money.
Half of the funds raised for the derby goes to emergency aid for kids with Canadian Cancer Society programs and the other half goes into an account that the Family Fishing Derby administers directly. “We’re helping a girl in Kimberley that just got her cancer back recently,” he said. She is currently undergoing chemo at the Calgary Children’s Hospital. “We’ll be helping her out this week and she’ll be in the draw as well.”
To take part in the derby, no fishing license is necessary. Entry tickets are required to participate in events. There are are also prizes for the fishing derby: the top prize is a 12 foot Lund boat and trailer. The first place prize for kids is a 50 inch TV and a Playstation 4. There will also be a 50/50 draw, door prizes and a silent auction. For more info on the derby go to www.familyfishingderby.com.