12-05-2025
Longtime Grant County volunteer wins coveted search and rescue award
GRANT COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) – He's been a volunteer for nearly twenty years, dedicating his time and talents to serving the community in southern New Mexico. And now, he's the recipient of a highly coveted search and rescue award.
'Search and Rescue has been a life-changing experience for me,' said Marc Levesque, Area Commander, New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue.
Levesque, a longtime volunteer, is nearing the end of his search and rescue career. But not without leaving a mark on his community.
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'I still get calls that say I'm trying to get a hold of Marc, and I need some advice,' said Russ Imler, President of Grant County Search and Rescue.
Imler says Levesque took him under his wing, helping him through a long process of becoming an incident commander. 'He has probably had a hand in training every single incident commander that's in New Mexico search and rescue right now,' said Imler.
Levesque is the area commander for the New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue, which is just one of the many titles he's earned throughout his 19-year career.
And now he's adding something new to his resume – recently earning the coveted Ralph Dowdy Memorial Award. 'It's named after a search and rescue field coordinator from actually my district down here who was also a volunteer firefighter and was killed in a motor vehicle accident responding to a mission,' said Levesque.
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His Grant County team chose to nominate Levesque for his many contributions to the community, calling his impact immeasurable. 'And he always led. He never pushed, and he never said, 'You need to do this, you shouldn't do that,' or, 'You need to do this better.' It was always we, and he always started with, 'We can do this,' and, 'We will work out together how to do it,'' said Imler.
And while it was unexpected, Levesque says he was, 'Very honored to have received it because it's a very special award. It's only given out once a year to search and rescue volunteers statewide.'
And as this chapter closes, he reflects on the things that brought him back year after year. 'I think the thing that stands out for me during the 19 years I've been in SAR is the people,' said Levesque.
Levesque says it's been a remarkable experience to be able to work with others to rescue people in distress.
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'We are definitely going to miss him, but I don't believe for a second that we will not see him,' said Imler.
Levesque, now one of five lifetime members of the group, will always be one phone call away. 'I've really collected a lot of wisdom along the way from all my experiences, so I'm happy to continue to share that,' said Levesque.
Levesque plans to spend time with his new rescue dog and work on writing several books to follow up his already published book titled 'Gila Lost and Found: Search and Rescue in New Mexico'.
His retirement date is set for July 1.
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