Manitoba dive team, HEART, turns hobby into help for grieving families - Action News
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Manitoba

Manitoba dive team, HEART, turns hobby into help for grieving families

The Manitoba dive team who pulled Travis Bauman's body from the water last week near Winkler began as a hobby group after members of a local Hutterite colony saw a need they could fill with their skills.

Dive team that recovered body of teen in Winkler saw a need for their skills in their community

Pictured from left to right are HEART divers Andy and Adrian Maendel, diving trainer Brent Stoesz in the middle, and divers Manuel and Paul Maendel. (Holly Caruk/CBC)

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 thatpassionto serve his community.

In 1998, Maendel's seven-year-old cousin went missing. The colonysearchedfor 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."

Manuel Maendel had a passion for scuba diving since he was a boy. He turned that passion into a way of serving his community by forming HEART. (Holly Caruk/CBC)

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 nametheir team HEART, which stands forHutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team.

The team now consists of seven trained divers and three people who help out along the shoreline.

Manitoba dive team, HEART, turns hobby into help for grieving families

8 years ago
Duration 2:11
Dive team that recovered body of teen in Winkler saw a need for their skills in their community

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.

"When we did find him there was relief,but also a great sense of accomplishment.A great joy and a thankfulness," said ManuelMaendel. "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 teendisappeared.

"When somebody has been in the water for a couple of days, you know there's not going to be a happy ending. But there is a peaceful ending," said Paul Maendel.
Manuel Maendel helps his brother, Paul Maendel , get suited up for a dive at West Hawk Lake on Monday. (Holly Caruk/CBC)

"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 Maendelrecalls 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 skillsand don't want to be seen as heroes.

In their latest search for theWinkler-areateen, 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."