The volunteers who comprise Boundary Search and Dive Rescue are a talented bunch, each bringing something to the table so as to create a veritable smorgasbord of talent to complement the dedication, commitment, sheer grit and never-quit determination that nine times out of ten pushes them those few extra steps essential to make the difference between a successful save and falling just short.
While team talent abounds, what is rare on any such team as theirs is a member who possesses that ephemeral quality that emanates and imbues those who possess it with the blessings known to but few … celebrity. Star power.
Even more rare is the team member touched with that rare gift who nonetheless stays humble, who doesn’t get swept up in their inflated persona or succumb to an over-inflated ego. The star who places more importance and effort on being a useful team member than on flaunting their own importance or assuaging their own ego.
Boundary Search and Rescue is blessed to have learned recently that one of its members is just such a star, and he’s such a good boy, too! He never even brought that he was famous, so focused is he on the important work he and his teammates are called upon to perform whenever and wherever the need arises.
Nope, none of those he works and trains with would ever have known of the star in their midst had not Ava Marie Wion recently spilled the beans about her loyal partner Zuko, her highly trained and highly skilled search dog, a poster boy for search and rescue who has now graced the pages of not one SAR fundraising calendar, but two.
The 2024 Spike’s Calendar raises money for Spike’s K9 Fund, which donated the custom fit Kevlar vest Zuko wears on rescues, his GPS tracker and the trauma kit he carries, is sold out temporarily, but you can still see it and other products as well as donate to protect and train our nation’s working dogs at spikesk9fund.org.
Zuko is also in the 2024 Search Dogs Wall Calendar, which is packed with 155 photos of search dogs and search dog teams showcasing the different disciplines and levels of training. There’s even a tribute to search dog puppies, “Ground Zero,” on the back cover.
It’s $15 and available online at www.sarshop.com, a company that is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, outfitting rescuers since 1994.