County Airport gives Wing and Wheels proceeds to benefit local search and rescue development

CALCUTTA --Calcutta Fire Chief Dave McCoy and those who gathered for the check presentation from the Wings and Wheels event held Saturday were surprised and excited when the amount of the check was announced as $13,000.

The proceeds from the Wings and Wheels event goes yearly to benefit a community. This year the Calcutta Fire Department was selected as the recipient to help in its efforts to develop a county-wide search and rescue team and train a search and rescue dog.

The amount raised was more than enough to cover the first round of training for the dog and provide additional training for her.

Jim Pusateri, Airport Authority Chairperson and also chairperson for the Wings and Wheels committee, said he was proud to present the check on behalf of the Airport Authority, the Wings and Wheels committee and all the sponsors who supported the event.

McCoy said he wanted to thank everyone for selecting the fire department for the project it is undergoing.

"We are very touched and very blessed," McCoy said. "This is a big boost for this program."

Pusateri asked McCoy to provide an update on the the development of the search and rescue team.

The team is currently in the middle of taking a 16-hour wilderness first aid class and then will be moving on to the federal and national training which will take place at Calcutta Fire Department Station 10 over two weekends in mid-October. McCoy noted there are several people coming from other countries to take part in the training.

Once the training is completed, they will be certified in search and rescue.

The six-month-old German Shepherd the department has will begin her training with McCoy at Alpha Pack in New Springfield when she is between seven to eight months old.

McCoy noted the training facility he selected is where two of the county's K9s were trained.

According to McCoy, the Columbiana County EMA (Emergency Management Agency) has come onboard to be part of the search and rescue team with four individuals from that organization while covering half the cost of the training.

There are five individuals from the Calcutta Fire System taking part in the training. McCoy is actively seeking involvement from other departments.

McCoy also explained how by deploying to other national events, such as a hurricane flood in Mississippi, a hurricane in Florida and a tornado and flooding in Kentucky has helped him to train any potential incidents in Columbiana County.

"Going to a big disaster creates the ability for me to run anything in my backyard way more efficiently," McCoy said. "It's very important to go out to other communities, reach your hand out and help them in their time of need and for that reason we are being trained while we are helping other people."

He is also encouraging residents to take part in a SERC (State Emergency Response Commission) civilian training which is a two-day class.

McCoy explained that the firefighters go into the fires/events and pull the people out and take them to the SERC groups who take it from there, freeing them to go back in for more rescues.

He believes the next SERC civilian training will be held in February and anyone interested can contact the Columbiana County EMA for more information.

After providing an update on the search and rescue team development, McCoy said about receiving the check, "I can't elaborate how excited I am and how thankful I am with the Calcutta Fire Department and the search and rescue being the recipient of this."

Pusateri said the community really came together well to make this happen and they had so many people on the commercial end of donate to it which was a big help.

Planning is already underway for next year's Wings and Wheels event.

McCoy wants to encourage everyone to follow t-he Calcutta Fire Department's website and Facebook page for updates and to see how to get involved.