Mayor Ryan Bater could not have been happier with the outcome of the Sunday evening’s Amber Alert, or the reaction of citizens to it.
Bater called the response “nothing short of extraordinary in this community” at the City’s planning committee meeting Monday.
The mayor acknowledged all the people who took part in the community effort to find the six-year-old girl who was the subject of an Amber Alert when the car she was a passenger in was taken from a strip mall in North Battleford. She was located safe in the industrial area the next morning.
“There’s been a lot of negative things said about our community in the last year, and people have said that’s not who we are,” said Bater.
“Last night, that effort, that’s who we are. We’re a community that comes together in the face of a crisis. And whether you know that family or not, didn’t matter. That little girl is one of our own and everyone came to help, and it was beautiful to see.”
Along with a number of Battleford residents, Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie said he was out looking for the girl with his wife, then checked back roads with the volunteer Battleford Fire Department.
“You never know what the response is going to be for something like that and it almost restores faith in mankind,” Leslie said.
Bater said it was with “tremendous joy” that they learned the child was now back at home with her family.
In his remarks, Bater pointed to the efforts of RCMP, search and rescue, both school boards, as well as the support of leadership from nearby Indigenous communities in the search effort.
Leslie said efforts by Battlefords residents were “wonderful to see.”
Bater noted the RCMP had pulled in resources from elsewhere to help in the search, and he also noted the civilian response was “really something to see.”
The mayors said people were going on foot, using flashlights to search ditches, back alleys, grid roads and other areas to try to find the little girl. There were also search efforts underway in neighbouring towns and communities.
Bater noted conditions were horrible, with thick snowflakes, fog and even a power outage in Battleford.
Bater also had good words about the Amber Alert system.
“The Amber Alert system itself did a great job of not just alerting the people here, but alerting people throughout Saskatchewan and western Canada,” said Bater.
“I don’t think you could be living in Saskatchewan last night and not know what was happening.”
