The Pilot Club of Suffolk on Monday made a $1,000 donation to Project Lifesaver to help the organization purchase an unmanned aerial vehicle.

Project Lifesaver is a free service offered to Suffolk citizens that provides personal transmitters to those who are likely to wander. The transmitters allow emergency response teams to locate the individual quickly.

The organization has been in Suffolk since 2004, and most of the transmitters are given to children with autism and seniors with Alzheimer’s.

“When Project Lifesaver first got started, the Pilot Club was one of the first organizations to help fund it, and we have been donating ever since,” said Pilot Club secretary Roberta Powell. “We felt like we needed to help them along with this big purchase.”

The Pilot Club is able to help organizations like Project Lifesaver with their two large fundraising events — the Queen’s Banquet and selling Brunswick stew.

With these two big fundraisers, the Pilot Club has been able to also raise money for other community charities including Suffolk Relay for Life, the Genieve Shelter, Meals on Wheels, the Salvation Army, the Western Tidewater Free Clinic and Coalition Against Poverty in Suffolk, among others.

This organization has quickly become important to those in the Pilot Club, and they believe that Project Lifesaver is a necessity to certain families in the community.

“Project Lifesaver is an important safety initiative for anybody that wanders, whether they are a child or an adult. We feel like it is very important to keep that going,” Powell said. “They offer these transmitters free of charge, and they need all the help they can get.”

To continue to raise funds for the unmanned aerial vehicle, Project Lifesaver will have its own fundraiser at the First Lady on May 4. Derby Night will help raise funds for their new technology, and it will help assure that the service remains free to their clients.

They will be selling tickets to the Derby Night event; for more information, contact Mason Copeland at Suffolk Fire and Rescue Station 6, 300 King’s Fork Road.