DART News

Feed The Children February 24th, 2010,
partnered with The Salvation Army in Sacramento to distribute 8 trailers full of food and personal care items to 3,200 pre-selected Sacramento families at Cal Expo. This was the latest stop on Feed The Children’s "Americans Feeding Americans Emergency Caravan", which has helped more than 30,000 families across the country in cities that have been affected by the nation’s economic downturn. Each family received a 25-pound box of food & a 10-pound box of personal care items, along with Avon products. The boxes were designed to help a family for up to one week.
This was a very face-paced and physical volunteer day event, outdoors, in an uncovered parking lot. DART Volunteers helped lift boxes and escorted families back to their vehicles using shopping carts. DART members Neava H and Miguel Z got especially thick into the action with other volunteer groups passing food boxes out to families. DART worked with the Salvation Army, the Star Touring and Riding Association and other volunteer organizations to help make “Feed the Children” happen.
The Salvation Army provided a full course meal including dessert to the volunteers from their rehabilitation vehicle. President Victor Tibbs of STAR’s Lone Eagle chapter of Contra Costa also expressed an interest in DART. This event was well organized, and everyone involved had fun and enjoyed giving to those families in need.

Fill the Boot for Burns annual event
Saturday February 13th, 2010 at the Sunrise Mall from 10 am to 3pm
for the Firefighters Burn Institution that helps both burn survivors and firefighters.
more information is found at http://www.ffburn.org/
D.A.R.T. was invited to join this fundraising event and responded dutifully with six dedicated members:
BobE, JohnM, NeavaH, MiguelZ, StephenF, JamesN & wife Melissa
A variety of agencies joined in with the local fire departments, EMS agencies, CERT, Cal Star, Reach and Sac Metro's Rescue Huey helicopters. This was DART's first time joining "Fill the Boot for Burns" fundraiser. DART members also got to interact with these agencies that have helped with the many aspects of DART's mission throughout the years. This was a well organized and important fundraiser.

6th Annual Crab Feed & Silent Auction Fundraiser Friday 1/22/2010 at the Sacramento Elks Lodge was an awesome success considering the economic downturn. Silent Auction items were displayed from 6pm on to about 10pm. Dinner @ 7pm. Auction items donated by various businesses, individuals and organizations were bid on and sold to provide the valuable monetary support of D.A.R.T. The crowd of over 350 people enjoyed Food, Raffles, Music, Dancing and warm-hearted socializing. Many commented on the good tasting pasta and the sweetness of the Crab. Veteran crab feed aficionados brought their own specialty sauces, butter, warming crab cracking tools & warming dishes. Ranier of Clear & Distinct Music and veteran DART member was DJ & Master-of-Ceremonies and dutifully announced the silent bid & raffle ticket winners.

President's Dinner was held 12/13/09 at the 4th Street Grill 400 L Street in Sacramento and summarized a rather eventful year 2009. Pictures were viewed, Awards were given and Congratulations were shared by all Team Members during a sumptuous dinner at this cozy venue

LGS Dive & Shore Operations Training - October 1 thru 4th, 2009
This included classroom training Thursday evening at the Sheriffs Academy; Continued equipment practice & tender-diver dress rehearsals and line tending practice at the Dock on Friday thru mid-afternoon; then members were off to the American River to conduct hands on training Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and most of Sunday. We polished off the intensive training with a written test; Finally, Awards & Certificates were handed out by Andrea and Ron amid the applause & hand shaking

We learned a lot, and the team is better because of it. I want to thank each and every member for all your participation. Almost everyone was there and had a role in the training. Over 47 hours which included a call out Sunday evening.

I want to especially thank Jim who went out with me last Sunday to search out dive locations which turned out to be a pretty good spot. At least we weren't in 4 feet of water. The average spot we dove was 14 feet down. He also helped me with tank fills. Now you may think that isn't much but after lifting 27 bottles into the truck, then once at dolphin, into the shopping cart, filled, then back into the truck and finally unloading back at the dive site. Now times that by all the times we did that. Can you say "Heavy Lifting" Talk about tired.

I can't say enough about the team as a whole. So many people did so many things from diving, to shore, to team leading, to working on equipment, to clean-up. Everyone took a role and did a fantastic job. You should all be proud of yourselves and what you accomplished. We will now take it from here and build to make this an even better team.

THANK-YOU ALL! -- RonR

This will be an every three year event from now on which gives the Team more time to obtain the necessary funding

All American BBQ at the Aerospace Museum, held on 8/15/09, was a surprising success considering the low initial turnout and our relative naiveté of this new venue. Much of members have never been aware of the Aerospace Museum existence, and most of us had never visited it until we hosted this fundraiser. This venue was a hands-on fun-filled adventure for all. The large numbers aircraft, space exhibit, art gallery, hanging models, full size engines, provided a many interesting attractions for all ages. DART supporters roamed through helicopters, cargo planes and Coastguard Rescue planes as well as inspecting fighter jets parked on the tarmac. Plus, participants experienced extra G-force in a space simulator. Add to this event a Silent Auction, a No Host Bar, an all you can eat BBQ, and Music-by-Ranier with a little bit of dancing, and DART Supporters got a fabulous night out to help fund our Team

There was an exponential increase in fireworks sales from day one up to the closing day.

The night of the 4th was the most intense as frenzied customers purchased last minute items ... Inventory surprisingly dwindled as customers purchased all the small items and much of the assortment packs

Along with telling people about Water Safety & DART's role in the community, newer members got a taste of DART fundraising. ..AND it was great fun to interact with other DART team members.

After the booth closure, help was still needed for sorting, packaging, inventory and cleanup.

To all those dedicated brave souls that stuck it out to work the booth & thus help fund our Team:

Plus Thanks to ChrisM and all the great sponsors that he lined up to help promote and donate to the DART Team. The wonderful daily food donations provided by various restaurants:

Friday July 3rd: While the Chick-Fil-A Cow was giving away free chicken sandwiches with $1 donations to DART, Radio Station 102.5 KSFM was giving free prizes for a spin of their wheel. From the KSFM Van came Hip-Hop music & frequent announcements for listeners to check out our DART Fireworks Booth

Other radio stations also contributed musical entertainment and DART promotion

2009 Safe Night Sacramento - at Raging Waters at the Cal Expo Fairground
Water Park 6/19/09 gave DART volunteers a chance to explain to kids what DART is and how NOT to require DART Services. 2 DART members volunteered there services to become dunkees as hordes of energetic kids dunked the DART Divers. A raffle pool among all the other organizational sponsors provided further incentive for kids to visit all the booths and get food, fun and educated

NCA College Row Championships - 6/4, 6,5, 6/6 at the CSUS Aquatic Center, Lake Natomas - swimmers and divers strategically positioned themselves to help if a water accident might occur - thankfully no rescue service was needed during this exciting event: College row teams from around the country competed at 15min intervals through-out the 3 days. Donations for this Non-DART service were graciously given to DART.

OPEN HOUSE was held on 4/28/09 6:30pm at our Garden Highway facility. Many interested people joined us to learn more about DART as they met with our Team members to discuss our volunteer activities, community support and education, fundraising, operations and equipment. As we displayed our gear, some got to try out our EXO26 communication mask and were further treated to a full on-scene Rescue Operations dress rehearsal. Channel 13 and Channel 10 TV News Crew filmed the entire rescue scenario while Diver Michael got suited up and Tender Tim narrated for the audience. A full BBQ meal was provided free to all, while Chick-Fil-A and Virgin Sturgeon restaurants donated even more food & Radio Station 103.5 - "The Bomb" provided music & prizes

All Day Classroom Training was held 3/21/09 at the at the Rockingham Sheriff's Substation. Members and some prospective Members fulfilled some their classification requirements for various topics, including: Chaplaincy, Critical Incident Stress, On-scene behavior, Witness Interviewing, Diving Physiology, Media Relations, Diving Environments, Radio Procedures, and Report writing. A good turnout made this annual training a success. A final, group picture was made with a donation check from a local Rotary Club.