Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue

2020 Annual Terry Tibke Memorial Award Honoree

Edwin Prada

Of the previous well deserving 43 annual Tibke Honorees, it would be very hard to find one that epitomizes the spirit of Terry Tibke more than Edwin Prada. Within SAR, there is no one who is more “always there, getting tasks done, and never noticed” than Edwin.

Edwin first joined the Snohomish Unit in 1997 and was always a frequent responder. Three years later, he joined the Helicopter Rescue Team and is currently the longest serving Rescue Technician and longtime Assistant Coordinator for the team. He also became a member of Everett Mountain Rescue Unit in 2004 and is one of the longest serving members there as well.

While those are important contributions in themselves, what is truly special about Edwin is what you do not see. If you try to point out his contributions that you notice, he will always say “I prefer to stay invisible”. He does not need, and especially does not want to receive recognition. He just likes to quietly do his thing without the distraction of being noticed or praised.

Some examples of his behind-the-scenes work have touched us all. If you have ever received a page for a mission on your phone, that is all Edwin’s work maintaining the list of members and which page line they receive, while coordinating it all with the Sheriff’s Office and Dispatch.

But he has done much more. If you have ever touched a radio transmit button on a handheld or truck mounted radio (both the VHF and 800) and talked to another SAR person, that is Edwin’s work, Installing, programming, maintaining, upgrading, and repairing all those radios and antennas. And by the way, he has also helped many SAR individuals to obtain and program their own personal radios.

Moreover, if that radio transmission was in a remote area that needed one of the many backcountry repeaters to boost your signal to reach others or others to reach you? Thank Edwin.

Remember the Taylor’s Landing emergency radio base station for catastrophic events? That was Edwin.

If you have ever been at Taylor’s landing for meetings or trainings and used the internet, in every building? Thank Edwin.

As for the security system that protects Taylor’s Landing and all our SAR resources? Edwin greatly contributed to installing and maintaining that too.

What about the internal comms on Snohawk10 for medics, techs, and helo crew to talk directly to each other through helmet headsets? The cameras that record and document all the helo operations? Controls to the water bucket? Setting up all the HRT InReach devices? Tracking all of HRT’s individual and group hardware and safety equipment (by serial numbers)? Edwin.

In fact, the majority of anything to do with radios, videos, or electronic communications and messages within SAR probably has Edwin’s fingerprints on it. And all of this is not just over the past 2, 3, or even 5 years. This is over the past 10 to 20 years. Those of us who have been around a long time and know what he does always say that he is the most dedicated and humble, but also most unseen and underappreciated member that we know.

Thank you, Edwin, for all that you do for SCVSAR, and congratulations!

“THAT OTHERS MAY LIVE.”