Kirkland Boy Scout Troop 570’s annual trip to Blake Island was more than just a trip to take advantage of good weather Saturday. The trip turned into a rescue situation for the 29 boys and 15 adults.
The group was asked to helped find a missing 60-year-old woman with the early stages of Alzheimers, who had been missing for two hours on the 475-acre island in Puget Sound.
“This was a bonus and it came out on the good side,” said Paul Schindler, an adult leader on the trip.
The troop had just set up their tents at their campsite and finished lunch when a man, his daughter-in-law and a friend, all from Federal Way, came asking for their help.
“They said that the ranger was not on site and that they needed our help,” said troop leader Dale Rae. “They had been looking for her for a while.”
The family had kayaked to the Island and was on a hike when the elderly woman said she was going to head back.
“She was tired and didn’t want to go any further,” said Rae.
When the man and his daughter-in-law returned to the campsite, the woman was not there.
“The husband was pretty upset but he had a cool head,” said Schindler.
The boy scouts, ages 11-17, split into four separate search parties and set out looking for the woman.
“They were all sitting around being boys, playing around, and within 10 minutes they were organized and very professional. It was very impressive,” said Schinlder, who stayed back to anchor camp and coordinate the effort.
The woman, who had a jacket and bottle of water, was found on the other side of the Island on the Outer Rim Trail. She was confused but uninjured. The park Ranger arrived on the island 15 minutes after the woman was found.
“He was grateful because they did not have as many people to go out looking for her and it would have taken a lot longer,” said Rae. “He said if we ever need a recommendation for anything he’d be happy to (give us one).”
The woman said that she knew she was lost but just kept walking and received bad directions. She walked back to camp with the scouts.
“One of the adults told me that one of the boys said ‘this is the most important thing I have ever done,'” said Schindler, adding that emergency preparedness is part of scout training.
The boys normally take the trip via the Sea Scouts, a group that runs a charter just for the Boy Scouts to the Island, on a decommissioned World War II tug boat.
“We have done this for three years but this was definitely the most exciting,” said Schindler.
The boy scouts on the trip were: Elliot MacPherson, Max Slusher, Mark Tintinger, Chuck Yandle, Jonathon Brenner, Kyle Fuglestad, Christopher Raabe, Jake Strieb, Kyle Kraus, Nathan Lee, Alex Wyruchowski, Matthew Herbert, Alex Mayberry, Sierra Counts, Rolando Robledo, Arthur Taylor, Owen Evans, Will Kingstone, Quinton Lum, Kevin Schindler, Andy Terrell, Erik Abramson, Jacob Broenkow, Jon Abramson, Taylor Clark, Elliott Heaton, Luke Robledo and Oliver MacPherson.
