National Search and Rescue Program: Awards of Excellence
1.0 Background
Canada's National Search and Rescue (SAR) Program is comprised of a great diversity of government, military, civilian, and private sector individuals and organizations that work together to save lives. In addition to responding to search and rescue emergencies, time and resources are also invested to help prevent incidents from occurring. Through public education and awareness, and by capitalizing on research and innovations in the academic and private sectors, the National SAR Program helps make Canada a safer place to live, work, and play.
Most of those who are involved in search and rescue are already remarkable, in that they have chosen to come to the aid of others, often in their time of greatest need. Since 1995, the National SAR Program has acknowledged particularly outstanding individuals and groups through the presentation of the annual Outstanding SAR Achievement Award and Certificates of Achievement. A list of these recipients is included in Annex A. In addition to the importance of recognizing their efforts, these awards have also served to raise public awareness of search and rescue efforts across the country.
In 2009, the awards program was put on hold as it underwent a transformation to better reflect the new reality of what SAR is today. Following extensive consultation with the SAR community, the new National SAR Program's new Awards of Excellence were launched in 2010, and continue the tradition of recognizing outstanding contributions to search and rescue response and prevention in Canada. Awards are available in five categories:
- Award of Excellence for Education and Training
- Award of Excellence for Innovation
- Award of Excellence for Leadership
- Award of Excellence for Research
- Award of Excellence for Exemplary Service
There are a number of international, national, and in-service awards recognizing the heroism and bravery of those who respond to individual search and rescue incidents. Like the original SAR achievement awards, the new Awards of Excellence recognize contributions that may not necessarily take place on the front lines, but which are critical to supporting search and rescue in Canada.
The Awards program is administered by the National Search and Rescue Secretariat (NSS).
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