WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers PROTECTING LOVED ONES—Camarillo Police Department Citizens Patrol volunteer Gene O'Neal, left, explains to Camarillo resident Mike Craven how to use tracking equipment that is part of Project Lifesaver during a Nov. 11 meeting at the Camarillo Boys & Girls Club. Partnering with local police departments, Lions Clubs from throughout Ventura County introduced the radio locator technology that's used to help track people suffering from Alzheimer's disease who might wander away from home and become lost. A new service for senior citizens may give their families some peace of mind.

Project Lifesaver, a locator service for wandering Camarillo seniors suffering from dementia, was unveiled before officials at the Camarillo Boys & Girls Club last week.

"I think this is going to be wonderful," Mayor Charlotte Craven said.

"You can't have enough eyes and ears out there," Camarillo police Capt. Monica McGrath said.

For a start-up and monthly fee, seniors can enroll in the Project Lifesaver program. They wear a wrist band that emits an individually assigned frequency registered with the police department.

If a 911 call comes in for a missing Project Lifesaver client, Camarillo police and its auxiliary group, Citizens Patrol, respond and begin searching the area where the person was last seen. The volunteer patrol, specially trained by Project Lifesaver International, uses directional antennas to fix on to the frequency signal of the missing senior.

Finding a missing person is an arduous effort that burns up valuable search and rescue resources, said Gene Saunders, founder of Project Lifesaver International and a former police captain. Project Lifesaver has helped find 1,900 clients without any reported injuries or deaths, he said.

The average recovery time is less than 30 minutes, the company's website states.

Project Lifesaver can be found in 45 U.S. states, Canada and Australia, he said.

It's taken two years and the combined efforts of the sheriffrun Camarillo Police Department, Senior Concerns, the Alzheimer's Association and the county's four Lions clubs— Channel Islands, Downtown Ventura, Oxnard Noontime and CamarilloSomisPleasant Valley—to bring Project Lifesaver to Camarillo.

The group said they hope the program will spread to all Ventura County cities.

"The Lions clubs have been phenomenal—they've been the reason this exists today," said Carol Freeman, president of Senior Concerns in Thousand Oaks, who will screen and sign up prospective clients in the East County area. The Alzheimer's Association in Camarillo will interview clients in the West County.

Freeman said she hopes Thousand Oaks is the next city to implement Project Lifesaver.

Mike Brown of the CamarilloSomisPleasant Valley Lions spearheaded the effort to establish Project Lifesaver in Camarillo.

"I think the most rewarding (thing) is when we find that first client," Brown said.

The four Lions clubs donated about $10,000 and the city of Camarillo a $5,000 grant to buy the tracking equipment and training needed to launch the program.

For information on Project Lifesaver, call the Alzheimer's Association at (805) 485-5597, Senior Concerns at (805) 4970159 or the Camarillo Police Department at (805) 388-5100.