The head of a volunteer search and rescue group says their members are tired but still ready to go, after what has been a very busy year so far.

Paul Service, Chief Director for Halifax Search and Rescue tells our newsroom between April 1 and June 4 they have had 31 “operational periods”- where they search for about 12 hours -compared to 17 last year.

“We’re probably tracking a territory where we’d normally be by September [where] we’d have this kind of call volume,” says Service.

A busy spring

In April, on Easter weekend, a 4-year-old boy from Guysborough County went missing after falling into Cooks Cove, and a 58-year-old man from Truro went missing during a boating incident in Devon.

Then, in early May two young children, 4 and 6 years old went missing in Pictou County with a search that has been on and off, since.

That same May weekend, a kayaker was lost, who was later found dead in Pictou County Lake.

Later in May, search crews also helped with a missing senior in New Brunswick.

More frequent calls

Service says it used to be rare to get more than one call on a weekend but it’s becoming more and more common.

“We had one day where we were engaged with a fundraiser, and we had team members out that were called to two different incidents. We’ve kind of, I think for the third time this year had multiple call outs over the course of the weekend,” adds Service.

“That kind of call volume as a volunteer, you only have so many hours economically before your family starts to chime in and wonders what you look like.”

Some help for mental health

The search for Jack and Lilly Sullivan in Pictou County had hundreds of volunteers who put in tens of thousands of hours, and the investigation is still on going.

A get-together and therapy dogs were part of the decompression for that search.

Service says, the government has also brought in more mental health support over the last couple of years as well as help from the municipality.

About 150 members volunteer with Halifax Search and Rescue with roughly 1,200 throughout the province.