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(Image Credit: Grande Prairie Technical Search and Rescue )
By Erika Rolling
Volunteer Opportunity

Grande Prairie Technical Search and Rescue looking for more members with annual Recruitment Drive

Jan 16, 2026 | 1:25 PM

This month marks the end of Grande Prairie Technical Search and Rescue’s annual Recruitment Drive.

The annual drive runs from early December to the end of January.

TSR’s Vice President Sam Dodd says he joined in 2018 and decided to apply as a way to give back to the Grande Prairie community.

“Currently on the team we have 43 operational members and 10-12 support members.”

Dodd says operational members participate to call outs the group is tasked to and training, and support members help with fundraising efforts, Adventure Smart activities in the community and schools, among other things.

He says their area of service is quite large.

“From the Kakwa River towards Grande Cache to the B.C. border, the Smoky River and north to the Peace River as our main area, but we provide support especially north and for support teams in the south like in Greenview.”

Dodd says the province has a provincial operations group that will ask for members to help in additional areas, particular searches, or even disaster response.

In recent years, he says wildfire support has been a big part of the unpaid volunteer group response.

“Those calls have increased (wildfires), so we’ve been trying to grow our team to be able to better support our community and also the province to help with some of theses events.”

Since the recruitment drive started, Dodd says around 30 applications have been submitted by community members looking to make a difference with the group.

He says it is a rigorous process for people to join as applicants submit an application form the group then reviews. Then, based on experience, commitment level, and what they are looking for, there is then a round of interviews and a hike. Those who make the team then have to go through a basics program to learn the skills necessary to be an operational member.

It’s not a certain type of person the group looks for but anyone from outdoor enthusiasts, those interested in navigation, rafting, quadding, and more could be some of the qualities the team appreciates.

“It’s a wide variety. We kind of look for anybody. But (at) certain times, maybe we’ve lost members trained in first aid, so we look to fill in places like that, and some years it’s a different skillset we focus in on. It depends on where we are at as an organization.”

Dodd encourages community members if they don’t make the GPTSR team, to continue to explore other volunteering opportunities in the region.

Interested individuals have until January 31, 2026, to fill out and submit and application to be apart of Grande Prairie Technical Search and Rescue. You can find the form to apply by clicking here.

by Erika Rolling