Chicago Area Regional Search and Rescue came about in 1998 due to an obnoxious dog and a book. Tell your children reading is a dangerous thing that can change their lives. I read the non-fiction book "So That Others May Live" by Caroline Hebard to my son as a bedtime reading session. In the book she talked about what she looked for in a SAR dog. This difficult to live with shepherd fit her description to a "T".

There was a telephone number in the back of the book so I contacted them and learned about local groups. I trained with them for a while and with their encouragement started Chicago Regional SAR in 1999, incorporating and developing an IRS recognized charitable organization. The founding members were Jim, Sherri and Shane Gallagher.

Training and Becoming Certified:

We decided that the toughest standards we could find and the only standards that required regular re-certifications were at American Rescue Dog Association so we made an application to them to become a new unit. We added Brian and Ana Crow and Bill and Mike Brown and started to train every Sunday, no matter the weather. In December of 2000, ARDA evaluators came out and spent a weekend giving us grueling tests and approved us to become operational.

Our next task was to let agencies know we were available and add enough members to become a Full ARDA unit. We also had to dig our way out of a tremendous financial hole of approximately $10,000 and then find another $10,000 to buy radios. Thanks to a local Catholic school where the students adopted our cause and a member who was a concert pianist, we finally recovered financially and bought radios.

Finding Dedicated Members:

Finding new members was much harder. Most people were not willing to spend two years training and we spent countless hours providing free training to about 25 people who eventually left before becoming operational. Rule of thumb is only one person in ten will stick it out to become operational. Some hard times came when Clara was hit and killed and six weeks later Taz died of a brain tumor. There are still times when I think, "I wish Taz was here she could do this search without any problems at all".

While 9/11/01 brought awareness of the public to canine SAR it also brought out a number of people who visualized the publicity and accolades to be had for themselves and their dogs. We trained a number of them with the agreement that they would stay as members of the team for at least two years and help with wilderness searching. While the less glamorous, it is really the service that the community needs on an on-going basis. Unfortunately, once they got their training they did not honor their verbal commitments and went to join USAR teams.

In the end it worked out for the best. We added a number of new members in 2004 that were really dedicated to serving the community. They had no problem becoming wilderness teams first and specializing second. Thanks to their hard work, we became a full ARDA unit in May 2005.

Becoming a Viable Team:

Our work does not stop there. We continue to provide free educational and search services throughout the community. The original foundation dogs of Lektor, Stava, Libby and Hawk, are all learning specialty training while we have three additional dogs and handlers that could be operational in just a few months. More calls are coming in for searches and respect from the law enforcement community is growing.

As a full unit member of ARDA our responsibility has also increased with them. We have a place on the board of directors and have taken on an officer's role. Our goal is to help ARDA become economically self-sufficient and promote controlled growth and increase units in other states. We are also required to provide at least one ARDA evaluator so we have been going through that training to meet our requirements and commitments.

The Future of CRSR:

The future for Chicago Regional SAR is very bright. We are always in financial need. Right now we are trying to develop a medical fund to help pay for illnesses and injuries the team canines incur. We bought a new trailer when our original base camp stopped running and are now trying to raise the funds to build out the interior to satisfy the needs of our organization. It would also be nice to develop a fund to purchase more radios - it is so great to have so many team members that we need more communication equipment! It would also be nice to help unit members with the purchase of their helmets. The cost of a single helmet is $175 and most of the handlers struggle to raise that amount of cash.

The door is always open to new members willing to work long and hard for the good of the organization. We will continue to grow and serve our community at a local, state and national level. As always we will be here to help our brothers and sisters in the SAR field. The structure is in place, Chicago Regional SAR will out last the founding members and remain a viable entity in Illinois.