Squamish has shown that without a doubt, it can come together as a community during a particularly tough time.
A widespread search engulfed the town when it was reported 15-year-old Richie Stelmack had gone missing after he was last seen going to bed on Sept. 21.
The days-long search for the teen came to a head when Squamish Search and Rescue, RCMP and other first responders announced they needed the public’s help on Sept. 24.
Squamish responded in overwhelming numbers.
Over 800 people answered the call, flooding the Quest University field to be briefed and grouped with SAR members.
These groups combed the Garibaldi Highlands the entire day, covering in one day what would’ve ordinarily taken search and rescue crews several, said B.J. Chute, rescue manager with Squamish SAR.
It was the biggest community effort that he had seen since he started working at Squamish Search and Rescue in 2011.
In fact, the 800 or so people who showed up didn’t even account for people who supported the effort in other ways.
“We had probably another hundred people that came by with well wishes and food and coffee and lunch, dinner,” he said.
As an example, Chute said, one particularly dedicated person dropped off 20 pizzas at once. She then came back with boxes of fresh fruit and juice for volunteers.
“The support that the community showed not only to the family but to all the SAR volunteers was — amazing would be an understatement,” he said.
In addition, there were hundreds of SAR members from teams across the province who came to assist.
The next day, the public was asked to stand down as rescue technicians took the search to the Mashiter area, which has hard-to-access terrain.
“Those pools are quite deep and the canyon’s quite technical to get into,” Chute said.
Sadly, on Sept. 25, the search would come to a devastating end.
A team of swift water, rope and other technical rescue crews from Squamish Search and Rescue and Squamish Fire Rescue found Stelmack’s body at 10:40 a.m. that day in the Mashiter area, around the bridge linking Quest to the Highlands.
The reason for Stelmack’s disappearance and death is not known, and RCMP and the BC Coroners are investigating. Police have said, however, that there is no evidence of foul play.
“Squamish Fire, Squamish RCMP, Squamish and Search and Rescue first send thoughts to the family of Richie — our hearts go out to them,” said Sgt. Sascha Banks in a news release that day.
“We also would like to thank all the support and the assistance from the community of Squamish and surrounding area, along with the media who made sure everything was done to find Richie. It has been a very hard and difficult few days and this was not the ending we had hoped for. One thing I know Squamish will do in the coming days and weeks is we will rally around Richie’s family, friends, and our community members.”
In the meantime, Chute said that he’s spoken with Stelmack’s family.
The best thing for the community to do at the moment is probably to leave the family to go through their grieving process, he said.
However, Chute said he wanted to extend a big thanks to the public and District staff for coming out to help with the cause.
“We’ve always known that we’ve had community support here in Squamish but this last week has certainly highlighted just how supportive our community is,” he said.
“It’s not the outcome that any of us were hoping for, but we are relieved that at least we were able to bring Richie home to his family. I think that gives some small — very small — measure of comfort.”
This year has already been declared SAR’s busiest year on record with months left to go. As of Sept. 26, crews had received 135 calls this year.
This beats the previous record of 124 calls in a year established in 2020.
A spokesperson for Stelmack’s family publicly posted that anyone who wants to do something to help can donate to Squamish SAR: squamishsar.org/donate. Enter [email protected] for the family to have notification of your donation.
