Ninety-six days had passed since that icy night on Shan Creek Road in December, but emotions were fresh during a special ceremony last night to honor the 38 rescuers who played a part in rescuing a family on a Christmas-tree-hunting trip.

A proclamation in recognition of the rescuers was presented during the Board of County Commissioners meeting tonight. Many of the rescuers were in attendance.

Many of the 38 rescuers, from eight different agencies, both public and private, were off-duty but volunteered when they heard the 911 call reporting the family had hit a patch of ice and hurtled partway down a 1,500-foot cliff the night of December 11.

County Search and Rescue Coordinator Sarah Rubrecht said rescuers had to devise system of ropes to raise each of the five victims to the road. Two of them had what were later determined minor injuries, but two were critically injured.

One of them, 41-year-old Brian Davault, who had been ejected from the vehicle, died while he was being lifted.

The others, though, each made it to the road safely and recovered from their injuries.

Catherine Cofer, mother of the three children in the accident, including her 15-year-old daughter Sierra standing by her side, addressed the people who spent nine hours on the hillside, thanking them for rescuing the family, and comforting her daughter.