Manitoba dive team, HEART, turns hobby into help for grieving families
Dive team that recovered body of teen in Winkler saw a need for their skills in their community
When Manuel Maendel was a boy growing up on Oak Bluff Hutterite Colony, he dreamed of becoming a scuba diver.
Several years later, he made that dream a reality. What he didn't know was that someday he'd be using that passion to serve his community.
In 1998, Maendel's seven-year-old cousin went missing. The colony searched for two days before a dive team was called in to search the water in the gravel pit on the colony.
"I can remember sitting on the shore and watching them," said Maendel, who was 20 at the time. "Having this dream to be a diver and just being so proud of what these people were doing and wanting to do that myself."
Years later, Maendel went on to train as a diver, earning his advanced diving certification. By then Maendel had formed a dive team as a hobby, recruiting his brother Paul and five others from the colony to train as divers.
In 2012, a young girl from the Poplar Point Colony fell into the Assiniboine River. Having knowledge that the Maendels were trained as divers, the community asked the brothers for help, and they responded.
"That passion [for diving] was always in my heart. And here we were now being advanced divers and seeing this need, and knowing 'wait a minute, we can help out," said Manuel Maendel.
A 'peaceful ending'
After this, they decided to name their team HEART, which stands for Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team.
The team has since participated in three searches for people who have been presumed drowned. The group responds at the request of the families involved, and are known throughout the Hutterite community.
It was on their third search last week, near Winkler, that they recovered a body for the first time.
Travis Bauman, 17, had gone into the water near a dam and disappeared into the fast flowing water.
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"When we did find him there was relief, but also a great sense of accomplishment. A great joy and a thankfulness," said Manuel Maendel. "We felt that God led us to find this young man."
It was Maendel's brother, Paul, who was one of the pair of divers who recovered the body of Bauman two days after the teen disappeared.
"It brings a resolution. It is a lot better than knowing that somebody is missing. You know they are down there. But now that you can make contact and bring [the family] together, it is like you're closing a circle again."
Paul Maendel recalls how helpless he felt when his cousin drowned 18 years ago.
"When you've searched every conceivable nook and cranny on the colony and there's one place you can't look and that's under the surface," he said.
Team won't overstep boundaries
Both the Maendel brothers feel that the dive team is just a small part of a bigger effort. The Hutterite colony has financially supported the dive team and provided them with equipment and training.
HEART only responds when invited by family and works with law enforcement and fire and rescue teams.
"We try not to go outside our capabilities. We want to stay safe of course and not overstep our boundaries," said Manuel Maendel.
They are looking to add new members and update their diving equipment so they can help more families in the future.
The humble diving team is driven by a deeply ingrained desire to help their community with their skills and don't want to be seen as heroes.
In their latest search for the Winkler-area teen, they say community support for their dive effort was key.
"I believe that we were able to recover that person because of the prayers of the family and the colony that was there," said Paul Maendel. "They were singing on shore. It really inspired us to keep going."