We've enjoyed the hell out of our SeaStrike 240 Center Console (954/566-6320, www.seastrikeboats.com) this summer. Now it will be put toward a much nobler use. After we're finished with our season on the water, SeaStrike is donating the 240 Center Console to the Bear Search and Rescue Foundation (www.bearsearchandrescue.org), a non-profit Foundation dedicated to training search and rescue teams around the country. "We wanted to donate it to an organization we support that might not easily get a boat of this size and versatility," said Tom Theis, President & CEO of SeaStrike Boats. "We hope that what we are doing will encourage our friends and competitors to do the same thing with these kinds of organizations."

The Bear Search and Rescue Foundation, the nation's largest non-governmental funder of Search & Rescue teams plans to honor SeaStrike during a ceremony on the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier in New York City on September 17th. Stay tuned for more info.

"SeaStrike's generosity of spirit has been both a catalyst and an inspiration to the United States Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary," states Captain Scott Shields, President of the Bear Search and Rescue Foundation. "When I told my colleagues, US Coast Guard Captain John Felker and Coast Guard Auxiliary Vice Commodore Tom Venezio, about SeaStrike's donation, they were inspired to action and came up with a plan where the Bear Search and Rescue Foundation could utilize the SeaSrike 240 as the impetus for a broader initiative to place vessels in the hands of the USCGA under the ownership of the Foundation.

When the SeaStrike is not being used for rescue training by the Bear Foundation, it will be on loan to the US Coast Guard Auxiliary under the direction of the United States Coast Guard. Through a joint command structure between the Coast Guard Auxiliary and local municipalities "fire, police, EMS, search and rescue teams etc.—the SeaStrike 240, and vessels like her, will be utilized for marine training, rescue and patrol operations around the country twelve months a year. The program, called Bear Emergency Action Response (BEAR), will use the SeaStrike 240 as its flag ship for a fleet of rescue boats. Something like this can potentially change the way we accomplish rescue preparedness around the country. Because of SeaStrike's generosity and the United States Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary's initiative the whole has truly become larger than the sum of its parts." SeaStrike President Tom Thies, United States Coast Guard Captain John Falker, and United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Vice Commodore Tom Venezio will be receiving the "Inspiration and Innovation in Rescue Award" on September 17th on the USS Intrepid in New York Harbor. The award, to be presented by New York Secretary of State Randy Daniels and world-renown scientist and conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall is sponsored by The Bear Search and Rescue Foundation. The public is welcome to attend. For details go to www.bearsearchandrescue.org.

For info on the Bear Boat Program for your local municipality, please call Capt Scott Shields at 732-713-6298.