The Dave Gives Back Mission
My name is Maureen Cook and our family is starting a campaign to raise awareness for the incredibly important and unsung heroes of Search and Rescue. We are aligning our campaign kickoff with National Search & Rescue Week - which is May 16th through 22nd - to honor my husband and the father of our three children, David Cook. In 2016, our lives took a very unexpected turn and we were faced with the unimaginable.
About Dave Cook
Dave was an accomplished Mountaineer, summiting over 50 peaks in Colorado - most of them being over 14,000 feet. He was a former officer in the Marine Corps. He was fit, detailed, organized, and prepared for every climb. He left me little room to worry when he would take off to Colorado for a weekend in the mountains. We were busy balancing a very robust family life in New Mexico. We were starting a business and managing three kids in school sports and 4-H, yet Dave still made time to continuously train for outdoor adventures.
He planned to summit his 47th 14er in the summer of 2016, when an unknown tragedy struck and Dave never returned.
Through the Sheriff's department we were connected with Search and Rescue who quickly became our lifeline through the days and weeks of searches that took place.
ABOUT SEARCH AND RESCUE
These organizations along with mountain safety education are often overlooked and you don't know you need them until you really need them. Our family is committed to raising awareness and support so they can continue to help families have successful outdoor adventures in the future. In doing so we've created the Dave Gives Back campaign to raise funds through merchandise sales and direct donations into our 501c3 fund.
DAY 1
When our friend called me on Tuesday evening saying that Dave was late and that she had already alerted Search and Rescue, I remember just hearing the words, "Search and Rescue", which made my stomach turn. It was unlike Dave to not do what he said he was going to do -- and I had so much confidence in his abilities. We all knew he got a late start on Monday. He wasn't on a strict timeline and there's very little cell coverage in the Elk Mountain Range. So I hoped he was just behind schedule and couldn't get a hold of us. But my initial worry led to no sleep that night when I realized Dave hadn't texted me a picture that day, like he almost always did at the summit.
SEARCH KICKOFF
Dave had planned to spend several days in Aspen, Colorado to summit three or four peaks. He was staying with some very dear friends of ours. He planned to return from his first hike on a Tuesday evening with instructions that if he did not return by Tuesday evening Search and Rescue would be contacted.
We agreed that if he didn't return by that afternoon, which was about 20 hours after his planned return, they would immediately kick off a search. Regrettably, Dave and I had never discussed a Search and Rescue plan, but I quickly realized that Search and Rescue expertise was our best bet of finding Dave. They held regular meetings and kept us informed in a timely and gentle manner as none of the updates were positive over the course of nine days.
UPS & DOWNS
We never thought we'd be in this position, and it took us a long time to touch adventure again. But eventually we started backpacking, camping and spending more time outdoors. This along with time and healing has given us the strength and desire to start this campaign, to bring awareness to Search and Rescue and educate others on mountain safety. Search and Rescue is the type of organization that you don't know you need until you really need them. And we hope our efforts enable more people to continue adventuring safely.
Not finding Dave left us with a lot of uncertainties. He was our sole provider and with his loss, we had an excessive amount of adversity to overcome as a family. Given the challenges we faced. Dave's Eight Missions have been ingrained in our children as they have proven to be so very resilient. Similarly, our company has continued to persevere due to our amazing employees and our investor. And I am able to play a large part in our company and provide for our family.
Give Back
We hope you will join us by making a tax deductible donation to 'Dave Gives Back' where 100% of the proceeds go directly to Search & Rescue.