Photo Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page

EAGLE RIVER – Keweenaw Search and Rescue was among some 60 nonprofit organizations to receive donation funding from Copper Shores Community Health Foundation’s Giving Tuesday on Dec. 29. The volunteer search and rescue organization received $8,557 during the Giving Tuesday campaign.

Michael Babcock, director of marketing and relations at Copper Shores said the amount was triple what the organization received from Copper Shores last year. Last year through Giving Tuesday, they received $3,374.60,” he said.

Keweenaw County Sheriff Curt Pennala said the search and rescue team is grateful for the donation.

“The increase we received really does speak volumes about the trust and support that people have in the search and rescue team and the work that they’re doing,” Pennala said.

Pennala said the funds will go toward much needed equipment that will help in making response times faster, safer and more effective.

“Some of the stuff is geared towards trail rescue, and another portion of the donation will go toward ongoing training of members.”

Pennala said it is a critical piece of the mission that search and rescue member are kept up-to-date on training and different criteria necessary to the organization’s mission.

“It’s an ongoing learning mission for everybody in the search and rescue field,” he said, “and there’s always new tools to incorporate into the mission.”

Keweenaw County has approximately 235 miles of groomed snowmobile trails, maintained by the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club. The county also has a network of ATV/ORV trails ranging from nearly 140 miles of designated trails to over 200 miles connecting Copper Harbor to Twin Lakes, in Houghton County, including former railroad lies and wilderness areas, with many more miles on state forest roads and unofficial logging roads.

Giving Tuesday total for 2025 was $1,175,225.81, including $200,000 from Copper Shores, donated to nonprofit groups.

“One of the fun things about Giving Tuesday is that we help different nonprofit organizations raise money for whatever it is they want to raise money for,” Babcock said. “It’s exciting for them (Keweenaw Search and Rescue) to see such a big jump in donations year over year, because they do such meaningful work for a large area, so it’s neat to see that kind of jump for them.”

Since 2017, donors have given more than $5.8 million to nonprofit organizations based in and serving Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties. For the eighth time in nine years, the total amount given has surpassed the previous record, this time bringing in $102,488.32 in 2024.

Pennala said he and the search and rescue team extend Copper Shores Foundation and everyone in the community who gave during Giving Tuesday in support of Keweenaw Search and Rescue.

“Without the support of people like Copper Shores, we couldn’t do it without their support.” he said. “They play a key role in connecting our community so they can give to different nonprofits and different organizations like ours. It’s really nice that they do this every year, and obviously to our community. I mean,”

A list of Giving Tuesday recipients can be found on coppershores.org