The Anchor Point Chamber of Commerce is hosting a fundraiser to benefit the Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization established in 2016.

The fundraiser features a free community cookout held on Sunday, July 6, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Sarah Beller Real Estate, located at 33850 Sterling Highway in Anchor Point. Donations will be accepted during the event, as well as a raffle drawing, with all 100% of the proceeds going to the Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team.

Raffle tickets are currently being sold by the chamber for $20 each for prizes including two halibut fishing charter seats with Alaska Coastal Outfitters, two seats with 49 North Water Taxi and a $100 gift certificate to Natures Ventures in Anchor Point. Tickets will be drawn on Sunday at 5 p.m.

Donations can also be submitted to the dive team via Paypal (akdiversq@gmail.com), Venmo (Jeremy-Lily-6) and Cash app ($akdiversq).

The Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team works to assist the state Department of Public Safety and is activated by DPS’s Search and Rescue Coordinator. They also partner with the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board for mission purposes. Requests for the dive team’s assistance can be made by any federal, state, community or tribal agency.

Founder and current president Jeremy Lilly said in a June 25 email to Homer News that since October 2016, the dive team has conducted 99 missions and recovered 88 people. Additionally, when possible, they train in known locations where missing persons have not been recovered, in the hopes of locating them.

The team averages about 11 missions a year, he said, “unfortunately more some years,” and responds year-round to missions throughout the entire state of Alaska, including Seldovia, Homer, Anchor Point, Whittier, Anchorage, Haines, Juneau, Fairbanks, Utqiagvik, the Bering Sea, the North Slope, and more.

“In one month in 2023, the team was deployed for 23 days straight, leaving one mission to respond to another,” Lilly wrote. “During that one month, we responded to six different missions, returning to Anchorage only to switch out people (and) gear and catch a flight that day or the following day.”

The dive team is entirely funded by donations to replace, repair or maintain equipment, pay for vehicle insurance and respond to missions; team members “leave their families and paid jobs without compensation to help others” and pay for their own training, required courses and some equipment.

In addition to rescue and recovery operations, the dive team also conducts community outreach on water, boating and ice safety, lifejacket use, and how to safely accomplish “buddy rescues.”

The dive team is currently seeking donations to help replenish the funds that enable them to respond to missions and replace old or purchase new equipment. According to Lilly, the organization’s long-term goals also include obtaining grant funding for the purchase of a building with indoor parking, heated storage and a wash station for all of their boats, vehicles, trailers and equipment; grant funding to support yearly operations; reimbursing volunteers for required training after they have been qualified and an active member for five years; and compensating volunteers for wages lost while they are on missions.

Learn more about the Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team and their capabilities at sites.google.com/inetwiz.com/akdiverescue/home or visit them on Facebook.

For further information on where to purchase raffle tickets, find the Anchor Point Chamber of Commerce on Facebook.

Members of the Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team conduct an ice dive recovery training session in 2019. Dive team members respond to missions in Alaska year-round. Photo courtesy of the Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team

The Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team conducts a training mission in Seward, Alaska in 2024. Photo courtesy of the Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team