Andrew Wallwork with South Fraser Search and Rescue said volunteers went all out to find a non-verbal six-year-old boy who went missing near a park in Surrey, B.C., on Saturday afternoon.
"Our volunteers give it their all, and just this sheer joy of a situation that could have very much not have a happy ending, and to have this happy ending is the best feeling in the world," said Wallwork, a search manager with the group.
Surrey Police Service said the boy was found safe around 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Wallwork said the boy was found in an area near Highway 17, which had been heavily searched and patrolled by the group's members.
Police said the effort to locate the child involved more than 100 search-and-rescue volunteers from multiple organizations across the Lower Mainland.
Wallwork said members from Coquitlam Search and Rescue, Mission Search and Rescue, and Kent Harrison Search and Rescue came to assist, and some groups as far away as Kimberly and Sparwood Search and Rescue were also involved.
The unique part of the search mission was that many members from the public also reached out to help, said Wallwork.
He said the responses and interest from the public prompted them to create a map on social media to allow people to submit tracks to give them data points to determine the most effective way of finding the boy.
Police said on Saturday that the boy was last seen sometime between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday in the area of Northview Park.
Surrey Police Service spokesman Lindsey Houghton said some of the volunteers skipped sleep to hunt for the boy through the night.
Police said the boy was non-verbal and may appear confused or disoriented.
Wallwork said in a case where the individual might not respond to his name or give crew members verbal clues, their strategy is to search the same area multiple times and look from different directions that the person might go.
In addition to the assistance from volunteers, police dogs and a helicopter from RCMP's Urban Patrol Helicopter had also been deployed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 13, 2025.
Nono Shen, The Canadian Press
