How a Gallup Grinch tried to steal Christmas PUBLIC SAFETY, A3
Gallup Sun VOL 10 | ISSUE 459
www.gallupsun.com
January 12, 2024
Four Corners K-9 Search and Rescue talks success, challenges HOW GERMAN SHEPHERD’S NATURAL TALENTS CREATED OPPORTUNITIES By Molly Ann Howell Managing Editor
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ernadine Beyale didn’t plan on going into K-9 search and rescue, but after she brought her German Shepherd Trigger home over seven years ago, she realized it was something the dog was born to do. Trigger’s breeder suggested he go through some obedience training classes, and once Beyale took him there, their instructor, who also taught search and rescue training, suggested he do further, specialized training. Beyale said he caught on pretty quickly. “… It was pretty much him sitting there as a puppy looking at me like ‘Hey, I really enjoy this work, this is what I want to do, are you in with me or are you out?’ That’s the day that changed my life because I decided to go into search and rescue because of him,” Beyale said in an interview with the Sun. At this point, Trigger had undergone months of training, so it was Beyale’s turn to catch up. STARTING TO SEARCH Once she completed her training, Beyale (and Trigger) joined a State of New Mexico search and rescue team. In New Mexico, when someone goes missing, the New Mexico State Police reach out to rescue teams in the area and whoever is available is deployed to a search location. If no one in the area is available the NMSP broadens their search area for a team who can help. After a couple years of working with the NMSP and the state, Beyale’s life changed again when she attended a
Valerie Adair, who traveled from Idaho and is advocating for her niece Hailey Norton who went missing and was murdered, stands with volunteers from Four Corners K-9 Search and Rescue and their dogs Gunner and Trigger during the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Walk in Window Rock, Ariz. in May. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Bernadine Beyale National Night Out event. National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live. While she was standing at her search and rescue team’s booth at the event, Beyale was approached by an elderly couple who told her that their son had been missing for six months.
Volunteers gathered during a June 2023 search for Ella Mae Begay, a woman who went missing in June 2021. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Bernadine Begay
The couple said they hadn’t been getting much help from the local police, and that they’d been searching for their son on their own. Beyale couldn’t believe this elderly couple was out there in unsafe terrain all by themselves. She asked her captain if she could help them, and he reminded her of the limitations they faced. “He said ‘Well, the Navajo Police would have to call the state police to allow us to go out and help them,’” Beyale said. “And I already knew that wasn’t going to happen, and so I was like, ‘Well, that’s going to be a roadblock for us because I know they’re not going to do that.’” So, Beyale decided to help the couple not as a member of her search and rescue team, but as a community member. After multiple weeks of searching in the wrong area, Beyale received a tip that led her to an area south of Shiprock, New Mexico, and after a six-hour search, they found the missing man. Unfortunately, he wasn’t alive. NEW CHANCES But this chance encounter led to bigger opportunities for Beyale. The couple
told some friends about her. Soon, she was getting enough calls that she decided to start a 501(c)(3). Beyale started 4 Corners K-9 Search and Rescue in 2022. In the two years since, Beyale and her group of certified team members and volunteers have been very busy. They received 75 calls for help in 2023. Of those 75 calls, 34 of them turned into actual searches. Three of those 34 searches turned into successes. For Beyale, a successful search happens when a person is found either dead or alive, or they find someone’s personal belongings. Beyale said her organization primarily focuses on the Navajo Nation, because that’s where the most help is needed. Forty-five people are currently listed on the FBI’s “Indian Country Cases” webpage, which asks for the public’s assistance on the multitude of missing persons cases involving Indigenous people. Beyale is based in Farmington, but 4 Corners K-9 Search and Rescue has helped families all over Arizona and
See 4 CORNERS SEARCH AND RESCUE , Page A4
New Gallup Community Health site creates more opportunities By Holly J. Wagner Sun Correspondent
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t looks like 2024 is the Year of More for Gallup Community Health, which is getting ready to move to a bigger space that will allow it to provide more services to more people. T he pr i ma r y ca re practice will officially move into the former College Clinic at 2111 College Dr. March 4, although some administrative staff will start to move over sooner. The move will offer two big advantages – vastly more space and proximity to Rehoboth McK i n le y C h r i s t i a n Hospital – as well as a lot more incremental
Gallup Community Health Executive Director Dr. Valory Wangler opportunities. First, the new space means going from the cramped 4,320 sq. ft. quarters at 2022 E. Aztec Ave. to a building with more than 17,000 sq. ft. That means going from 13 exam rooms to 42, which will make it much easier for providers to help more patients. The
building also has some larger communal spaces that can be used for patient education and office space for clinical and administrative staff. T he cl i n ic, wh ich opened in July 2022, grew from a startup to 4,000 patients in its fi rst year, and it’s up to about 6,000 patients now. The practice has 10 full-time providers and another five part-timers. “Right now I have five people working out of a small conference room so it will be great to have them have space to see patients and not be so c r a m p e d ,” fou nd i n g Executive Director Dr. Valory Wangler said.
The first thing patients will probably notice is a central check-in location when they come in. T he con f igu ration of the cur rent clinic forced them to have two check-in desks, which can get a little confusing for patients, Wangler said. Behind the scenes, more space may also mean more services. The clinic is pursuing a model of integrated behavioral health. “So if I see someone in my clinic and they are suffering with depression or anxiety that’s severe and really needs to be addressed, I can walk them over to my
See GALLUP COMMUNITY HEALTH, Page A5
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