ENTRIES LOG - 2020 | THE YEAR OF COVID-19 - Toronto Search and Rescue
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LOG
ISSUE 007 | WINTER 2021
ENTRIES
2020 | THE YEAR OF COVID-19
LOG
ENTRIES Page 2
Amidst the social isolation, lost a fancy to boating to escape the some quite small, and the task
momentum and energy, and the Covid-19 blues. Finding a boat falls to 4000 or so dedicated
financial pinch of the past year of in the GTA has become much CCGA volunteers.
lockdown, there have been a lot more challenging than ever!
of changed plans for Canadians. And while going out on the water With about 1 in 4 of the 8000-
includes managed risk even for odd annual SAR incidents in
Just as it became harder to buy the very seasoned boater, the Canada tasked to CCGA, the
a bicycle in Toronto as cycling inexperienced ones can be at Auxiliary is credited with saving
increased, and with cancelled even greater peril. The result about 200 lives each year! Like
trips abroad, a lot of people took of more boaters resulted in a the Canadian Rangers of the
dramatic increase in mishaps on Arctic, CCGA units like T-SAR
the water in 2020. Fortunately, step up with the resources they
volunteer first responders can get, relying on the grit and
stepped up and put themselves commitment of its crew.
in harm’s way to assist where
LIFE ON THE possible. T-SAR was created as a step
towards MORE citizen-driven
WATER In a time when social capital
has been drawn down and is
social capital, volunteerism, duty
and resilience. We believe that
IS PRECIOUS. needed more than ever, a volun-
teer-driven corps like the Cana-
is what you are voting for, when
you support the work of our
HERE’S HOW dian Coast Guard Auxiliary truly
comes into its own. The mandate
dedicated organization. If what
you read inspires you, consider
TO KEEP IT is staggering: ~3.3 million miles
of coast & shoreline to cover,
donating to keep T-SAR up and
running... or perhaps YOU are
THAT WAY.
with roughly 1130 rescue boats, our next great volunteer!
ASK US ABOUT OUR FREE
WATER AND BOATING
SAFETY PROGRAM
TORONTOSEARCHANDRESCUE.COM
Toronto Search and Rescue is a registered charity
LOG
ENTRIES Page 3
UPDATING OUR SOCIAL MEDIA FOR 2020
Toronto Search and Rescue has a new look online! We launched our redesigned website in Septem-
ber 2020 to provide a much more visitor friendly experience for people looking for more information.
Our new streamlined site makes it easier for people to apply to be a volunteer, as well as find educa-
tion resources for water safety. We have also made it easier for people to donate to T-SAR by making
the link more prominent.
We have increased our presence on social media by posting more regularly to Instagram, Facebook
and Twitter. Sharing photos and videos every week allows us to reach more people interested in water
safety and our role on Lake Ontario. On average our posts reached about 300 people, but our purchased
boosted posts reached over 6,500 people,
which has been very beneficial in finding new
volunteers. We plan on reaching even more
people this year by increasing the number of
educational posts about water safety.
Having a media presence is a good way for
us to get the word out about T-SAR, but 2020
brought a challenge as the media was focused
on coverage of the pandemic. The pandemic
meant a large increase in new boaters on the
water this year as people looked for activities
to do, resulting in many stories in the news
about water rescues. We spoke to the Jerry
Agar Show on NEWSTALK1010 in August to
talk about the increase of people needing
assistance and how people can stay safe on
the water.
We look forward to introducing ourselves to
more people online and teaching them about
water safety in 2021!
LOG
ENTRIES Page 4
The past summer was one for the
history books! Across Lake Ontario,
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS FOR FIRST RESPONDERS
rescues spiked with a dramatic
increase in emergency calls.
T-SAR was called out by JRCC,
the Joint Rescue Coordination
Centre more times than ever
before, as new boaters tried their
luck with unmaintained boats
and little awareness of the skills
required to navigate big water on
Lake Ontario. We hope they will
discover the courses available conditions with Covid-19. Every prepared with full body PPEs and
through the Canadian Power and time we would board our vessel, the training that accompanied them.
Sail (CPS) organization and other we had enhanced measures to
clubs and continue to pursue follow to ensure the safety of our We are pleased to report that we
pleasure boating in a safer and crew and those we would eventually maintained 100% crew safety
better-informed way in the future! assist. These measures included a throughout the summer. Our thanks
It is a great pastime but one that covid-19 questionnaire, temperature go out to the Canadian Coast Guard
requires dedication to ongoing tests, gloves, and masks along Auxiliary for providing the necessary
training. with a procedure to sanitize the PPE and protocols those of us on
boat before every departure from the front line needed so we could
Those of us on our rescue boat T- dock. In the event of personal perform our duties and continue to
SAR 2 also had to adapt to new contact with victims, we were serve our community!
YOU CAN HELP SAVE A LIFE BY DONATING TODAY.
CLICK HERE
OUR KEY SPONSORS:
KATHRYN E LANGLEY HOPE & ESTATE OF TRISHA A LANGLEY
HCOL PATRICK S. CURTIS
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