10 April 2014 Kev Mitchell - Ochil Mountain Rescue Team

President Colin Strachan welcomed members, visiting Rotarian John Rankin from Stirling Rotary, Iain Galloway and guest speaker Kev Mitchell from the Ochil Mountain Rescue Team.

President Elect Peter Farr brought greetings and a banner from our twin Club, the Rotary Club of Temora in New South Wales. Peter was just back from holiday and had met up with Temora members during his visit.

John Rankin from Stirling Rotary was on a mission to gather support for the incoming Canadian Rotary Curling Tour in November. Hosts and players are needed and John asked members to support this very enjoyable event.

President Colin introduced Kev Mitchell who has been Team Leader for Ochil Mountain Rescue for 8 years and has climbed throughout the world. In between this, other outdoor pursuits and his family, he still manages to hold down a full time job with a geomembrane lining company.

Kev outlined the history of the team from their early days in a police cell in Alva in the 70's to their current premises in Fishcross, provided by the Order of St John in Scotland and opened in 2010.

Apart from the Mountain Rescue work - they attended 26 call outs last year, the team are also involved in general community work and helped recently, after a local farmer burst a major gas main, with organising support for people affected by the cut off of their supply.

They regularly carry out training with other teams and can call on them for support if required. Despite the relatively low elevation of the Ochils, the terrain can be very challenging and makes finding missing persons very difficult. The use of Search and Rescue dogs has been a great benefit as they can cover far more ground very effectively.

Kev noted that all the team were volunteers who enjoyed their work immensely, even if they do get called out to injuries on Dumyat where the walkers were wearing totally inappropriate footwear.

Jim Gardner thanked Kev for a very amusing and informative talk and wished the team well in their ongoing work.