Community Emergency Response Team

Our Mission

In July of 2021, the Putnam County Community Emergency Response Team established the Putnam County Project Lifesaver program. Project Lifesaver is an advanced Search and Rescue team dedicated exclusively to locating people who have Alzheimer's, Dementia, Autism, Down Syndrome, or any other cognitive condition that includes an uncontrollable urge to wander. These are the most at-risk group of people who go missing because they have an inability to identify, avoid, or remove themselves from dangerous locations or situations. Every Project Lifesaver client wears a watch-like device that has a transmitter that is programmed to a radio frequency unique to each client. The Project Lifesaver search team carries Receivers that they program to the frequency assigned to the person who is missing, thereby allowing them to locate the direction and location of the client WITHOUT the need to visually locate them. When the signal is located, the receiver "chirps", alerting the operator to identify the direction that the signal is coming from.

On May 16 at 9:50pm, a 911 call was placed for a missing person who was an 80 year old dementia client enrolled in the Putnam County Project Lifesaver program from Reelsville. Missing person calls to 911 always result in deployment of local Law Enforcement, Fire Department(s), and EMS. If the missing person is a Project Lifesaver client, the Project Lifesaver team is also deployed. When the Project Lifesaver team arrived on this scene, the other first responders had already been there for 45 minutes and were searching for the missing person, including the use of a search dog. It was a very dark, rural, heavily wooded area, and he was thought to be in the woods somewhere around the area of the home. The search conditions were extremely challenging.

The first three members of the Project Lifesaver team arrived at the scene at 10:46 pm and immediately located the transmitter signal assigned to the client and began searching the woods with several law enforcement officers. The signal was coming from an area that law enforcement hadn't yet searched because it was thought that due to the age of the client and the difficult terrain, it was unlikely that he would be in that area. But the chirp (the sound emitted from the Receiver) indicated otherwise. Six additional members of the Project Lifesaver search team arrived at the scene for a total of 9 Project Lifesaver Search Specialists. They were able to successfully locate and recover the missing person at 10:58pm. IT ONLY TOOK 12 MINUTES FROM INITIAL SIGNAL DETECTION TO LOCATE HIM IN THICK SWAMPY WOODS IN DIFFICULT TERRAIN IN THE DARK!!!! The man was not injured and was evaluated by EMS before being safely returned to his home.

The communication, coordination, and teamwork of all responders lead to this successful ending to a difficult search scene in difficult conditions. Though there were multiple agencies participating, they all worked as one and supported each other to ensure that the subject was located as quickly as possible, which is the primary factor in recovering lost persons before they become injured.

Though the Putnam County Project Lifesaver Team was established nearly 2 years ago and 10 clients have been enrolled into the program, this was the first time a search was needed. The success of this search was a result of 22 months of training, growing the team, fundraising, outreach events to help locate those in the community who could benefit from the program, and practice with the equipment to ensure the team would be ready when called upon. Congratulations to the team for their first success story.

If you would like to become a member of the Project Lifesaver team, of if you have a loved one, friend, or neighbor that you think would benefit from the protection that this program provides to those with Alzheimer's, Dementia, Autism, Down Syndrome or any other cognitive condition coupled with wandering behavior, reach out to Putnam County CERT Chief Sarah Owen (chief@pccert.org), the Project Lifesaver Program Coordinator Chris Schafer (chris.schafer@pccert.org), or visit the Putnam County CERT Website (www.pccert.org) for more information.