Kittitas County Search & Rescue is one of several nonprofits up for the Land Rover Defender Service Award.

There are five finalists in total - click here to wade through the rest. (Also vying for the award, you'll notice, is KCSR's counterpart in Thurston County.) Voting is underway and will remain open through the 17th. If you'd like to make your voice heard on the matter, click here to vote.

It's not an "arm" per se of the Kittitas County Sheriff's Office, but KCSR is routinely called upon in situations of life and death. The organization is comprised of 60 volunteers spread across some 2300 square miles.

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In rural Kittitas County, where money and manpower are all too limited, KCSR is invaluable, writes the Sheriff's Office: "They perform a hugely outsized service...answering scores of emergency callouts at all hours and rescuing dozens of people, in every kind of crisis, every year."

"KCSR teams include ground and backcountry, canines, horses, ORV’s, snowmobiles, drones, and technological support, and KCSR volunteers include paramedics capable of lifesaving care in the remote wilderness."

How did KCSR come to be nominated? Surprisingly enough, it was the doing not of law enforcement, but of Corey and Amber Koniniec, a husband-wife video production duo living in Cle Elum. The Koniniecs put together a slick but gorgeously heartfelt three-minute video making the case for KCSR.

If selected as the winner, KCSR will receive a customized Land Rover Defender on top of $25,000.

"In the hands of these amazing volunteers," the Sheriff's Office writes, "this vehicle and funding will absolutely save lives."

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Gallery Credit: Megan

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