Emergency workers need you

If you take children to the fair this year, heads-up: Alice Wolfinger may be looking for you. Don't let her sweet, grandmotherly demeanor and small stature fool you. Alice is a strong-willed woman on a very serious mission: your child's safety.

Alice, who before retirement volunteered with the Shoshone County Sheriff's Department, is one of the active members of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Auxiliary, a nonprofit which runs the Lost Child Booth at the Fair. KCEA invites parents to their booth/building (or via roaming members like Alice) to have their child fitted with a wristband donated by Kootenai Health, sporting a parent's cell number. The KCEA keeps those numbers throughout the fair in case a child is lost, then safely discards the information after the fair.

If you think this is overkill, think again. Children are separated from parents at crowded fairs each year. Alice says at the North Idaho Fair they have a 100 percent return success rate.

"It makes life so much easier for us and those deputies on the fairgrounds if children are banded when they go missing," she said.

KCEA - an all volunteer auxiliary - supports law enforcement year-round. You might have seen them at the July Fourth parade, offering refreshments to officers throughout the day.

First formed in 1982 as the Sheriff's Posse Auxiliary with only eight charter members, their first duty was serving meals from the back of pickups to rescuers searching for a drowning victim in Post Falls. Now KCEA volunteers are dispatched by the county sheriff to help in all kinds of crises, from people lost in the mountains to hazardous materials clean-up, plane or train crashes, shootings, floods, fires, and landslides. They also provide various kinds of support during training exercises. Things can get creative in a crisis; once a serving table was converted to makeshift use by medical personnel caring for firefighters.

KCEA makes a little go a long way. Their old school bus with fitted kitchen badly needs replacement. They pay for equipment, insurance, and vehicles with donations and are low on volunteers, especially young adults whose schedules can be flexible enough to respond to emergency call-outs. Some training is needed, but the time is worthwhile; calm and ability to aid in a crisis is useful life long.

Meetings are on fourth Wednesdays at 6 p.m. at the county's Search and Rescue building, 10865 N. Ramsey Road in Hayden. Applicants must be 18 or older, consent to a background check, and are fingerprinted; members are often at restricted crime scenes. Other ways to help include donations, purchase of raffle tickets and other items at the fair booth, and ordering Christmas wreaths ($20 and up).

Alice would be happy to answer further questions about KCEA. If you're interested, shoot me an email and I'd be glad to tell you how to reach her.

Sholeh Patrick, J.D., is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at [email protected].