Reflections 2017
Dive team driven to serve despite dangers
Seven of 11 members work in law enforcement at Sterling Correctional Facility By Sara Waite
Journal-Advocate editor
Jim Trum can talk at length about the challenges of leading one of the few dive teams east of the I-25 corridor in Colorado. Local funding is almost non-existent. The work is strictly volunteer, and in fact costs members money as they must supply personal equipment, not to mention the time required for training and response. When calls come in, the information provided rarely matches what responders find on scene. And many of the calls turn out to be false alarms, meaning team members have dropped what they are doing, experienced a rush of adrenaline, all for nothing. Then there is the personal toll that can come from the calls that are all too real. Frustration, when residents in a flooded-out home refuse to get in the boat after team members risked their lives crossing raging river waters to rescue them. Horror while collecting evidence in a murder case after a body is dumped in the river. The tragedy of recovering a missing father’s body from the lake — on Father’s Day. But clearly there is something about performing rescues that keeps Trum, and the other members of the team, coming back. While Trum says “half the people in town don’t even realize we have a dive team,” the group now boasts 11 members — thanks to recent additions that have about doubled their numbers. Seven of those members, including Trum, work at Sterling Correctional Facility. Serving with him from SCF are Glen VanMeter, Brian Barnhill, Darney Swingle, Robert Camilleri, Andrew Paugh and Chris Scavarda.
Sara Waite / Sterling Journal-Advocate
Sterling Correctional Facility employees serving on the Logan County Dive Team (front row, from left) Chris Scavarda, Robert Camilleri, Andrew Paugh; (back row, from left) Brian Barnhill, Jim Trum, Glen VanMeter and Darney Swingle.
Camilleri, Paugh and Scavarda are rather recent additions to the team. Camilleri has been a member for about a year. He received his scuba certification while serving in the Marine Corps, and when he heard about the dive team felt it would be a way to keep diving. He enjoys being part of a team that has a common interest in giving back to the community. Paugh and Scavarda have only been members for about a month. Paugh also started diving while serving in the Marines, and says he never would have thought he’d be able to continue doing it in Colorado. He said he enjoys serving on a small team that is like a “band of brothers,” where members help each other outside of their work on the team. Scavarda, who has been in Sterling for 15 years, volunteered with
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SCF’s special teams before joining the dive team so she could serve the community. She says the other members of the team provide the “muscles — but I hope they have a spot for me.” Trum’s career in rescue goes back about 22 years, when he was a volunteer with the Kimball, Neb. fire department. After six years there, he came to Sterling, and two years later joined the Logan County dive team. After moving up from the training leader to assistant team leader, he became team leader about 10 years ago. He says he has always enjoyed emergency services, and he was “hooked” on diving “the first time I got on the bottom of the pool.” VanMeter serves as assistant team leader and has been on the team for 11 years. Barnhill, the training officer, has nine years with
the dive team, while Swingle has been an active team member for five years. SCF recently nominated the four long-time dive team members for a Community Service Award, and shared comments from the nomination. “Their leadership in the team and volunteerism is remarkable. They truly embody what it means to be a volunteer,” it states. “Their choices to act, without any regard for financial reward for the common good, are a display of their high personal values. They are outstanding citizens of the city of Sterling and positively represent Sterling Correctional Facility and the Department of Corrections.” Trum says recruiting volunteers for the team is a challenge in part because there is no compensation for the time they donate. He and See DIVERS, 33