Family and friends alike came out to Newtown Underwater Search & Rescue’s (NUSAR) Third Annual Dive-a-Thon held on Saturday, September 14 along the shores of Lake Lillinonah at Hanover Town Park.

While the event was originally scheduled to take place at Eichler’s Cove beach, plans changed as recovery efforts at the beach are still underway following the historic levels of rainfall from last month’s storm.

The location change did not make the NUSAR team any less excited to show the community what they could do. Throughout much of the multi-hour-long event, NUSAR had divers continuously head into the water of Lake Lillinonah doing sweeps to find a simulated missing victim, a reflective mannequin named “Ruth.” Two other divers would be on standby supporting the one underwater, while the communications team helped out from the shore. After a team made up of three divers finished their sweeps, they would then swap out with the next team. The sunny weather made for the perfect day to hold the event, and divers helped each other beat the heat by pouring water on each other’s heads.

The goal of NUSAR’s annual dive-a-thon, much like their open house held in April earlier this year, is to spread awareness about the organization and show what they do according to NUSAR Captain Connor Rieve. NUSAR is an all-volunteer, professionally trained emergency response team dedicated to saving lives in water rescue and recovery incidents through search and rescue operations. So to NUSAR, the more people in the community and surrounding area that know they are there, the more people they can help. The event also gave people a chance to meet the team, learn about the equipment they use, and the importance of water safety.

“We just really wanted to reach out to the public and welcome them to our events,” Rieve said. “For us, it’s just another monthly drill, but we wanted everyone to see what we do and our capabilities as a team up close.”

The dive-a-thon may partially act as an extended training session for NUSAR, but they are still working with conditions that they may face when performing recovery.

“It looks safe, looking at the conditions right now, but there’s a lot of risk involved,” Rieve said.

Visibility was low under the lake’s surface, and divers had to shift through grass and other debris in order to find the mannequin. Weeds could be seen spread out all over the lake, but there was even more of it below the surface. Just about every time a diver resurfaced, they had help pulling huge chunks of weeds stuck to their suit and the rope guiding them to the shore.

Rieve also said that the event acts as one of their major fundraisers of the year, which is especially important considering that much of the equipment that they use is expensive. He says the dry suits the divers wore at the event cost about $3,000, as the suits have to be wet resistant and protect divers against liquids such as oils and blood in hazmat or blood-borne incidents.

To that end, tables were set up at the top of the hill overlooking the lake and had NUSAR-themed badges, hoodies, shirts and more available to buy, with proceeds supporting the team. Other tables were lined with informational booklets on water safety, as well as ones describing NUSAR, its team members, and all of the equipment that they use. People could help themselves to drinks such as coffee and small bottles of water or chow down on some granola bars from Uncle Matt’s Bakery and Cafe as they enjoyed the special occasion.

For more information on Newtown Underwater Search & Rescue, visit nusar.org, call 203-270-4390, email info@nusar.org, or find the team on Facebook (NewtownDiveRescue) or Instagram (newtown_dive_rescue).

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.