In 1994 beautiful eight-year old Ashley Krestianson lost her way and, tragically, her life. While wandering with her twin sister Lindsay, Ashley took a shortcut and never returned home.

The massive search for Ashley spawned the development of several community-based search and rescue organizations all with one goal - to help the RCMP find missing persons. The RCMP realized they needed to train these volunteers to help with searches, and met with representatives from those fledgling community-based search and rescue organization. From those initial meetings, Search and Rescue Saskatchewan Association of Volunteers (SARSAV) came into existence as the umbrella organization for member-chapters and individual search and rescue volunteers in the province. Under the direction of the RCMP search and rescue volunteers received training, which has grown and evolved over the decades into national standards for search and rescue professionals - paid and unpaid - across the country.