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NEWS |
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June 2003
August 2003
December 2003
January 2004
August 2003
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
October 2004
April 2006
November 2006 December 2006 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 |
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| Reporter | Article | |||
| June 2003 | ||||
| 23 June 2003 | John Glen | In support of the organisation, local specialist instructors in outdoor activities and first aid have entered into discussions with the CASST training officer, to provide a Map Reading and Navigation course for members and a First Aid course. Dates to be confirmed soon | ||
| 24 June 2003 | John Glen | Our PR/Fundraising Officer begins contacting possible sponsor companies within the area. | ||
| August 2003 | ||||
| August 2003 | John Glen | Donation of £100 received from UKAEA | ||
| August 2003 | John Glen | Donation of £250 from Moray Firth Radio | ||
| 16 August 2003 | John Glen | CASST join with Trossachs Search and Rescue Team, Emergency Search Dogs and High Access Rescue Team to form the Scottish Rescue Council. The teams hope that this body will be able to be made up of and present a corporate voice on behalf of all lowland, coastal and other search teams, who work outwith the umbrella of the Mountain Rescue Council of Scotland. The Scottish Rescue Council aims to raise awareness of their members' expertise and availability as well as promoting the use of these many local teams to help preserve life and educate the public on safe use of the outdoors as a leisure environment. | ||
| December 2003 | ||||
| 19 December 2003 | John Glen | Second meeting of the Scottish Rescue Council takes place in Aviemore. | ||
| 20 December 2003 | John Glen | The SRC website is launched at www.scottishrescue.ik.com | ||
| January 2004 | ||||
| 02 January 2004 | John Glen | First trial of new personal radios during training sessions. | ||
| March 2004 | ||||
| 21 March 2004 | John Glen | CASST Members assembled today for a combined novice and experienced training day. A total of 22 Handlers and Support Personnel spent the the afternoon in a series of training searches. The training today included Support Personnel taking incident reports and preparing team briefings, search area risk assessment, and search co-ordination support, as well as the dogs and handlers performing their search roles. A very successful day was reported by all in attendance, with several new members as a result of the experience. | ||
| 28 March 2004 | John Glen | Dog Handlers and Support
Personnel attended lectures on the 'Theory of Wind Scents' delivered by
CASST Trainer David Ashpool, and 'Map Reading and Navigation' by David
Mowat of Northern Exposure Activities. Mr Mowat, an accredited
trainer and assessor of the National Navigation Award Scheme, has
generously donated his time to CASST to help ensure that our teams
achieve nationally recognised qualifications, to help ensure the safety
of teams and quality of service we can offer.
The venue for the activities was Thurso Sea Cadet Headquarters on Sir Archibald Road, Thurso. A special thanks to Thurso Sea Cadet Corps for their assistance with accommodation. |
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| April 2004 | ||||
| 4 April 2004 | John Glen | CASST Members and guests assembled for an day of introductory building search techniques at the recently re-developed Forss business centre. Many thanks to the management there for allowing us access for this vital type of training. | ||
| 9 April 2004 | John Glen | Staff of the Charities Committee of BT Retail, Thurso, organised a Coffee Morning in Thurso Town Hall to help raise funds for CASST. Members of the CASST Committee accompanied by family and dogs attended, and helped selling raffle tickets etc. It was an excellent morning and the generosity of Thurso folk was second to none as always. The total raised etc will be published as soon as they BT Retail team complete tidying up any loose ends. Watch this space and the local Caithness press for further information. | ||
| May 2004 | ||||
| May 2004 | John Glen | A search team consisting of David Ashpool, Meghann Ashpool and Alan Tadd has been sent to Glasgow at the request of Strathclyde Fire Service to assist in the search at the site of the Stockline Plastics Factory. David will be handling TeeDee, Meghann handling Titan, and Alan in the support role. Good Luck | ||
| October 2004 | ||||
| October 2004 | John Glen | In recognition of our assistance in the search at Stockline Plastics in May this year, Strathclyde Fire Service has made a charitable donation of £2000 to CASST. The funds will be utilised to increase the safety of our members in the performance of their search training and duties during callouts. | ||
| April 2006 | ||||
| 10 April 2006 | John Glen | CASST members and Trossachs Search and Rescue Team members met at Loch More for a weekend of training. Trossachs Search and Rescue provided a guest trainer, Stuart Ballantyne. Stuart provided instruction on casualty evacuation using various styles of stretcher over open area and rough terrain. Along with our own trainer David Ashpool, Stuart worked with all of our available dogs and handler teams and support personnell over the Saturday and Sunday. All members of the team took part in Heartstart CPR training and certificates will be winging their way north to participants soon. A social evening included in the proceedings on Saturday built stronger links between the two groups. TSART also donated some surplus equipment from their own supplies to CASST. We thank them for their help and support. | ||
| 23 April 2006 | Val Ashpool |
So we gathered. Some nine of us to DO FIRST AID. I don’t know what everyone else felt but I felt like a complete no hoper. The last time I did FIRST AID was in guides (and no John that wasn’t when Baden Powell took the group), but it was a very long time ago. Steven and Elaine had arranged the course through the St. Andrew Ambulance and the tension when we walked into the room was almost choking. Ellen Murray introduced herself and began the course. We all sat there in silence, even David and that is saying something. Ellen tried to get some response but it fell on deaf ears – perhaps we should be doing a BSL course. We stopped for coffee and I suspect that Ellen wished she hadn’t for upon resumption of the course all hell let loose. David and Steven were in good spirit and gave each other as good as they got answers and questions flew swiftly across the room and a back ground of giggle was a permanent hum. Charlie will never be the same again. The mannequin – renamed David for the day – was supposed to teach us the ‘up and thrust motion needed to expel blockages from a choking person , it was almost impossible to use as such but it did, apparently, remind David of his Navy days!! You had to be there and for those who weren’t – count your blessings! This was a very useful and successful day. We all learned a great deal and had a lot of fun. Some of us had a head start because of the Heart Start course held in the Bothy. Some of us had never resuscitated a dummy before, but we all got there in the end and passed the course. It was a great day hard work and very intensive but I know I learned a lot and hope everyone else did as well. I look forward to the next one Steven and Elaine
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| November 2006 | ||||
| November 2006 | John Glen | The group have spent a long series of weekends training hard over the summer and autumn. We are now close to having three more dogs ready for full assessment and qualification. Sadly we have had one dog retire and Murphy will be missed. Currently we have two new young dogs entering training and this is an exciting time for both dogs and handlers. The Group members continue to work hard to raise funds to support ourselves as an organisation. | ||
| December 2006 | ||||
| December 2006 | John Glen | The Group have started to add a new string to their bow. Handlers and support personnel have begun a series of BSL (British Sign Language) classes to help them develop their communication skills with casualties from any potential group. The signing and finger spelling are slow but everyone sees this as an important part of training, just like developing the dogs' skills. | ||
| April 2007 | ||||
| 22 April 2007 | John Glen | The group continues to go from strength to strength. Today we ran a major incident exercise in conjunction with members of the Trossachs Search and Rescue Team and The Scottish Casualties Network. Spittal Quarry in Caithness was the venue and a simulated seismic event caused thirteen fossil hunters and a couple of microlight pilots to be injured/trapped. The teams' smooth interaction and professionalism shone through and all 13 were located and treated/evacuated. In all a good two and a half hours work to three hours work. The attendance of prospective political candidates and prospective dog handlers helped make the day a success with them all agreeing that the performance of the dogs was exceptionally fast and efficient. We believe that we have formed a set of new relationships that will make sure our work will be discussed across Highland and Scotland. An excellent day was had by all. | ||
| May 2007 | ||||
| 27 May 2007 | John Glen | The group has
grown over the last few weeks with trainees passing a basic selection
process and joining the group. We Welcome the following new Trainee dog
and handler teams. Fiona Moar and her Viszla 'Harvey', Donna LeRoy and
her Rottweiller German Shepherd cross 'Raina', along with myself working
with Springer Spaniel 'Polly' and our newest and littlest potential
addition David Ashpool with border collie puppy 'Fly'.
June 3rd is a major assessment day for both Chris Irwin with border collie 'Chloe' and Marie Fraser with Golden Labrador 'Bailey'. Lets hope all goes well for both teams. |
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| June 2007 | ||||
| 3rd June2007 | John Glen | Assessment day came and went. Chris and Chloe completed their 'Hasty' 30 minute assessment. Tee Dee, Titan, Harvey and Kala all had successful finds as part of their training exercises. We were joined by local Photographer Michael Draper, whose family provided the property for the exercise. Many thanks to Mr Draper and our other friendly local landowners who allow us access for occasional training. Michael's Photographs of the training will be posted here soon. | ||
| 6th June 2007 | John Glen | 'Fly' launches his new blog - hopefully he will bring in a lot of publicity and good will as people follow his training. | ||
| 10th June 2007 | John Glen | Val David and I travelled south to Inverness to a planning meeting with Stuart Ballantyne and Gordon Gregory of TSART - 4 hours of talks on common operating policies and possible joint training opportunities. Look forward to a busy and eventful year all. | ||
| July 2007 | ||||
| 31st July 2007 | John Glen | The Annual General Meeting of CASST took place today. The group continues to work and to grow where possible. Nominations for the Award of the Toby Trophy for the biggest contribution to the group over the last year left a clear winner. Congratulations to our trainer David Ashpool. | ||
| August 2007 | ||||
| 24th - 26th August 2007 | John Glen | Seven
hardy travellers and 5 dogs made the trip from Caithness to Cumbrae
Island in the Firth of Clyde to participate in a joint training weekend
with Trossachs Search and Rescue. All arriving for briefings on Friday
night. Saturday brought a series of three scenarios for us to search and
deal with casualties. From broken limbs and evacuation off of a hill, to
a stripping hypothermic woman and Dutch speaking casualites with no
English we took it all in our stride. It was challenging and at times
hard work. There were good opportunities for development of both the
teams and their animals.
After the formal exercises there was time late in the afternoon for CASST training with younger dogs. Then the fun really started with a barbecue extended chatting and moaning followed by a quiz. Followed by more chatting and refreshments, by the end of the night a few of us were really refreshed and enjoyed a late night walk with our dogs. Sunday brought a chance to participate in a smaller search scenario with an evacuation by boat. TSART worked hard on this while the longer drives home started on the road for Caithness. A big thank you to Stuart and Joanne from TSART for organising the event. Also a thank you to our own Amy for her culinary work. |
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