Lion’s Fair Park became a temporary helicopter pad Monday morning as Corp. Kent Smith and Greg Rankin of Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) State Trooper Aviation Unit flew into Selma to accept a donation for Project Lifesaver from the Selma Alzheimer’s and Autism Outreach Group (AOG).

Project Lifesaver is a non-profit organization that helps locate those who have wandered off because of cognitive disabilities.

Project Lifesaver provides those with Alzheimer’s, dementia and Autism with bracelets that can be tracked through radio signals so that the wearer can be easily located.

According to Smith, in order to find the missing person, the local sheriff’s department will arrive at the last know location of the missing person with a piece of equipment to track the bracelet, in the event they can’t be found on the ground, the State Trooper Aviation unit tracks them in a helicopter like the one Smith flew in on.

Smith said that since the program came to Alabama in 2001, law enforcement has never failed to find someone who wandered off on foot while wearing the bracelet.

“It’s a 100 percent success rate,” he said.

Smith then stressed how important it is to have a program Project Lifesaver in the state of Alabama.

“There are over 100,000 Alzheimer’s patients in the state of Alabama,” said Smith. “Around 60 percent of them will wander off at some point.”

Smith added how important donations, like the one from AOG, are to the project.

“Donations like this are critical to Project Lifesaver in ensuring those in poor, rural counties get bracelets,” said Smith.

According to AOG Director Oscar Calloway, the group has donated around $100,000 to the project over the past five years.

“My mother died of Alzheimer’s,” said Calloway. “Many of our volunteers have a relative that has died of Alzheimer’s as well. All of our hearts are in it.”

Much of the money donated by the AOG has come from the group’s thrift store.

The thrift store, located at 431 Church St. in the Social Security Building, began as a one-time fundraiser, but after its popularity spread by word of mouth AOG decided to open up the thrift store the first two weeks of every other month.

“It’s a really great place to find whatever you’re looking for,” said Calloway.

After presenting Smith with a check for exactly $7,524.27, Calloway, his father and AOG volunteers Allyson Hartman and Audrey Sutherland were given a rare opportunity to go for a ride in the helicopter.

“That’s a 3.4-million-dollar aircraft,” said Smith, “When the Governor flies in a helicopter in the state of Alabama that’s the one she flies in.”