To the Editor:

Three of my four kids belong to Explorer Search and Rescue in one capacity or another. The fourth will probably join when he's old enough. I really, really hope he does.

You often read in the paper about "troubled youth". You read about vandalism, crime, and just plain aimlessness. I can picture life for kids in a big city. Aimlessness is about the best they can hope for. What can they do that's important? What can they accomplish that means something to their community, and to their world? What good are they to their families or to anyone? Talk about identity crisis!

Here in rural Idaho, an ESAR kid knows exactly what he can accomplish. He knows that he can be important to someone beyond his circle of friends. He knows the Sheriff depends on him to be there when there's a need, and he has seen the gratitude on exhausted faces when he participates in a rescue operation. In short, he matters to his world.

I used to think ESAR kids were all saints. After all, they're all (even the girls) officially Boy Scouts. I've known enough of them now to realize that they are just kids, from all backgrounds and with all the different troubles that kids inherit. But they do share a purpose in life - to help others. They share the excitement of real adventures in real rescue operations. They share the more sobering reality of doing traffic control while the body of a school friend is being pulled from a car accident. But they know in that case that nobody could have helped. In situations where somebody could have helped, they try very hard to be that somebody, be prepared, and to save lives in the process.

Taking vital signs prior to transporting a volunteer "victim".

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All of the members of ESAR have medical training. Many of the older ones have taken First Responder courses. Several are even certified as Emergency Medical Technicians. Their Captain is a volunteer member of an ambulance team. When they go out on a search or work security at a parade, they have medically trained and equipped first aid teams on the roster. Most of what they do in the First Aid booth at the County Fair is dispense band-aids and find lost kids. But one year a power line came down on a car in a crowded area of the Fair, and there was enough excitement to last for a year. Kids trained in crowd control and first aid were already on the scene, and stepped in and took control until help could arrive.

Just think of the self-assurance these kids must have, knowing that they make a difference. Our schools do not, and can not foster this self-assurance.

Kids aren't stupid. They know that nothing they do in school matters to the outside world. They're there to train so they can enter that outside world - nothing more. School writing assignments will never be read outside the classroom and, if the kid is lucky, by his parents. Leadership in a school club or organization means little to anyone outside the school. They are just waiting to enter life! Many think of school as just a way to pass the time until they can escape to the real world.

Practicing getting the ropes rigged right and keeping the Stokes level so a real victim will be extracted quickly and comfortably.

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But ESAR kids know they make a difference. They go on winter camping trips to prepare themselves for survival when they go on searches. They hike in the summer carrying medical gear and rescue equipment. When they come to a cliff, they might lower a Stokes down to friends at the bottom and practice the skills necessary to get it and a "patient" up the cliff. They take first aid and more advanced medical courses. They know they can made a difference.

Recently, the local post has been having morale problems. We had a mild autumn here, and there were no searches for lost hunters, as there usually are that time of year. Even the problems tell a tale about these kids. They are happiest when they are contributing. When the call goes out for a search, they're excited and charged up. Their spirits go down when they aren't allowed to help. I wonder if these kids are any different in this respect than every other kid in the world? I wonder if our modern daddy-off-to-work, park-the-kids-in-school society doesn't foster the crime and the aimlessness of youth which we all decry.

I can't change the whole world. But I can be very, very grateful that my kids have found a way to make a difference. I bless the advisors who trust these very capable young people with real responsibility in real rescue situations. Although they often enter dangerous areas by choice, they are trained to extricate themselves and others from this danger. I don't worry about them. They are trained and confident. They are competent and useful. They are having the times of their lives doing things the rest of us only read about.

Inquiries can be sent to Captain James Grinolds, PULLMANLOCK@turbonet.com

Inquiries can be sent to Captain James Grinolds, PULLMANLOCK@turbonet.com