This year we had the joy of seeing that our team is working well and moving in the right direction. Our friends and partners (sponsors, collaborators, supporters) stood by us, and their support mattered enormously to the work of our volunteers. Our dogs' proper training was confirmed both during the Mission in the Harghita Mountains, where our team saved the life of a man who had been missing for 48 hours, and during the International Search and Rescue Dog Exam in Donovaly, Slovakia, where CST took part with 3 dogs and obtained two elementary-level certifications for rubble/disaster search and rescue. These results were the culmination of the CST team's work in weekly training sessions and its collaboration with organizations and institutions at home and abroad. During the Training Camps and the International Training Camp for Search and Rescue Dogs, which CST organized with the support of its partners, we trained under the guidance of Mr. Kurt Schaffar alongside employees of the Centrului Chinologic Dr.Aurel Greblea (CCS) (Dog-Training Center, part of the M.A.I. — Ministry of Administration and Interior), members of specialized Austrian organizations (ÖRV and ÖRHB), and members of the Salvamont (mountain rescue) services.
We received a great deal of support from people who love dogs or admire volunteering in general, and to reward that support, we organized special events for you together with our partners and sponsors. Together with Hipermarket Cora Cluj we organized the "Școala Altfel at CORA" contest, where, over the course of a week, more than 120 children had the chance to work with our dogs and enjoy their company. CORA Cluj and CST hosted an event that has now reached its 4th edition: "HiperParada Animalelor", where more than 12,000 people from Cluj were able to watch CST volunteers, employees of CCS, the Jandarmeria (Gendarmerie) and ISU (Emergency Inspectorate), members of ACh Napoca (Napoca Kennel Club), and dog-training schools from Romania and Hungary, who presented two days of training demonstrations and canine sports. Together with Gold Plaza and Cora Baia Mare, CST organized a similar event in Baia Mare, called "The Brave Dogs Show".
Throughout the year, we were honored by the financial support of our backers, which allowed us to carry out our training activities and to begin both setting up a training ground, made available to CST by Hipermarket Cora Cluj, and preparing a disused building where we can practice rubble/disaster search, thanks to the kindness of Carbochim S.A.'s management.
Thank you all, and we hope to see you close to CST in 2013 too!