EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. – This May, the El Dorado County’s Tahoe Search and Rescue team was awarded a $10,000 grant from Rocky Talkie, a company that creates backcountry specialized radio systems and dedicates a portion of their sales to supporting search and rescue teams in the U.S. and Canada. The team will be using the money to purchase updated equipment and fund avalanche training for its members.

Like any search and rescue team, El Dorado’s Search and Rescue (EDSAR) team is made up of professionally trained volunteers, with 40 members on the Tahoe team. They cover the county from Lover’s Leap in Strawberry towards the lake. In 2024, there were 86 documented EDSAR missions, with 55 of those taking place in the Tahoe Basin.

Jamie Lefkowitz, one of the members of the Tahoe team, said that calls were way down last year, as they typically are in the hundreds range.

Lefkowitz moved to South Lake Tahoe about eight years ago, and while she works remotely as an engineer, she says she started volunteering for EDSAR as a way to give back to her community. She’s part of the technical team, which performs difficult terrain missions that require specialized skills and equipment. In the Tahoe region, though summer is usually the busiest time of year, the snow makes terrain even more treacherous—especially with the threat of avalanches.

“I personally made an effort to get instructed in avalanche training and to become an avalanche instructor myself, but it costs a lot of money,” said Lefkowitz, who footed the bill herself—as SAR volunteers often do. But she saw how important it was to get avalanche training, especially for her team members in the area, and it inspired her to apply for the Rocky Talkie Awards.

“I felt the grant really aligned with our mission to help recreational users of backcountry,” said Lefkowitz. Their stated mission is “to save lives and reduce human suffering, So Others May Live.”

The Rocky Talkie Awards are in their sixth year, and while the grant process has changed significantly, Lefkowitz praised it for “not having a lot of hoops to jump through.” On Rocky Talkie’s side, the company has used $2 from every radio sale to create a fund to give back to search and rescue teams. Each year, the grant has grown as sales have increased.

“Some SAR teams are really small, while others can be going on a huge number of missions, so they have a huge variety of needs,” said Erin Moeller, director of communications for Rocky Talkie. “We wanted to empower SAR teams to tell us what they need.”

Moeller said that this is the first year that they expanded their pledge to not just cover SAR teams, but all outdoor safety, including backcountry and avalanche centers. They’ve also been researching grant processes to improve their work, expanding the application and including tiers of $5,000, $10,000, and $25,000 for this year’s awards.

Out of 180 applications (a major increase from previous years), the selection team chose eight teams across the U.S. and Canada to receive awards. Moeller said that the selection team includes co-founder of the company Alex Page, along with members of the American Alpine Club, Mountain Rescue Association, and National Association for Search and Rescue.

“The vast majority of the public do not know that SAR are volunteers. They are people with a passion for helping others, and often their equipment and gear is self-provided,” said Moeller. “We’re trying to be equitable as possible: including community members and creating amazing relationships with nonprofits and other organizations connected to these SAR teams. And we’re really proud to be able to support search and rescue.”

Lefkowitz said that EDSAR is extremely excited to be receiving this training, especially newer members who want to be better informed on avalanche safety. “It’s important to have that education and to be able to make really good decisions for myself and my team.”

EDSAR will also be using the grant to get new climbing gear and personal protective equipment, as the region’s terrain means there’s a high need for specialized equipment. Rocky Talkie also provided radios to the team, which inspired them to invest in reliable and streamlined communication tools as well.

For more information about the SAR Awards and other recipients, you can visit https://rockytalkie.com/pages/sar-award.

Eli Ramos is a reporter for Tahoe Daily Tribune. They are part of the 2024–26 cohort of California Local News Fellows through UC Berkeley.