Project Lifesaver Device Tracks Missing People

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, one of the largest chambers of commerce in the Eastern United States, operates three (3) visitors centers and is teaming with a group to help protect tourists with autism, Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease who may get lost or wander off.

Through Project Lifesaver, lost or wandering visitors with autism, Down syndrome or Alzheimer’s disease can be tracked through a personalized wristband that emits a tracking signal. Those who wear the wristband can be quickly located and returned to their families and caregivers. The chamber has purchased several wristbands that visitors with special needs can use at no charge during their stay in the Myrtle Beach area. This is the first time in the United States that Project Lifesaver is being offered to visitors, according to Project Lifesaver International.

Project Lifesaver relies on proven radio technology and a specially trained search and rescue team. When caregivers notify the local Project Lifesaver agency that a person is missing, a search and rescue team is dispatched to the wanderer’s area and starts searching with the mobile locater tracking system. Search times have been reduced from hours and days to minutes.

Horry County Public Safety is the first public agency to be Project Lifesaver certified in South Carolina and only one in four to be certified in the state. Currently, 30 bracelets are in use throughout the county. The county’s first bracelet was distributed February 2007.

For more information about Project Lifesaver, call the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce at (843) 626-7444 or visit one of our three offices. 

Interested in the learning more about the Project Lifesaver wristband, (L) Rich Taylor questions Steve Scotch, information specialist in the chamber’s Welcome Center, on how the wristband’s tracking signal can locate lost individuals. MBACC Welcome Center staffs were trained last month in the Project Lifesaver program by Horry County Public Safety. The department was the first public agency to be Project Lifesaver certified in South Carolina.