What would we do without our first responders?

It turns out we can add another type of first responder who go above and beyond to help their fellow citizen here in the Black Hills—our local cavers.
On the first page of this week’s issue of the Chronicle  you’ll find the story of a boy who got stuck in a cave and had to be extracted with the help of local cavers who climbed in to both chip away at the rock and help free the boy from the position he was stuck in for 18 hours. Imagine being stuck in the same position in a eight-inch by 14-inch tunnel for 18 hours. That gives us the heebie jeebies to even think about.
How lucky are we to live in an area where people are even available to conduct such an operation? And how fortunate are we that these highly-trained professionals will drop everything and spend the better part of an entire day working in tight spaces to free a person they don’t even know? It almost brings a tear to the eye when you think about it. These cavers, and all of our first responders, for that matter, didn’t have to answer the call for help. But they did so because they are good people who want to help. The world would be so much better if everyone had that sort of mindset. Here in the Custer area many people do, and for that we are grateful.
If you follow the Custer County Search and Rescue Facebook page, you’ll see that group is extremely busy year-round, especially in the summer. It seems like every other day this group of volunteers is answering the call to find someone, assist someone off a hiking trail, etc. Custer County Sheriff Marty Mechaley has said many times at Custer County Commission meetings that the sheriff’s office would be in a bad way without the help of search and rescue. We are so grateful for their dedicated service.
There are too many first responder groups to list off in this space, but just know that if you volunteer for a local fire department, put on the badge of the Custer County Sheriff’s Office, volunteer for search and rescue, an ambulance service, or anything else we might be forgetting, for you we are eternally grateful. Volunteerism is declining for a variety of reasons, but the fact of the matter is that communities cannot function without volunteers. They are a backbone of a community, and we have some of the finest right here in Custer County.
The incident that took place in that cave could have had a horrific outcome. If you don’t believe us, look up the Nutty Putty Cave incident some time. Luckily, this caving incident had the best possible outcome—everyone who went into the cave came out relatively unscathed. That was made possible by our local first responders who once again answered the call to help a fellow citizen.
We salute all of you. You truly are the best of us.