News and Updates

Frank Lenik at the spring ACSM meeting in Salt Lake City

Schonstedt Instrument Company congratulates Frank Lenik, Professional Land Surveyor, on receiving the Key Governor Award from the Board of Governors, National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS).

According to Curt Sumner, Executive Director, "the Key Governor Award was developed specifically to recognize extraordinary effort by a Governor, which is clearly an honor, especially considering that it is bestowed by one's peers."

Patrick Smith, Chair of the Board of Governors, adds that “Frank Lenik's involvement in the Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative made it readily apparent that surveyors can play an effective role in society that reaches far beyond the everyday practice of the profession and the professional licensing requirement that surveyors protect the health, safety and welfare of the public in their professional endeavors. It is through an extension of his efforts that the NSPS Governors realized they could promote this very worthwhile initiative in all 50 of their respective states and, as such, recognized Frank's humanitarian dedication by awarding him the honor of the Key Governor Award."

Schonstedt notes that Frank’s efforts have contributed to the deployment, at no cost, of over 300 magnetic locators to United Nations humanitarian demining teams in 19 of the world’s most mine-infested countries.

For more on Frank's efforts visit www.woodstownfriends.org

Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of of the OAS, Washington, DC recently presented a Certificate of Appreciation to Schonstedt Instrument Company. The certificate, which reads "In recognition of the Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative and its contribution to the OAS Mine Action Program", was in response to a donation of equipment for OAS humanitarian demining field tests in Columbia, South America.

A still from the NBC News piece featuring the Schonstedt GA-72Cd-ML

The NBC Nightly News, in a piece titled "Iraqi troops prepare to stand alone" features troops using the new GA-72Cd-ML. Look for the Schonstedt locator in use in the first 40 seconds of the clip.

Click here to view the full clip.

The late Sgt Maj Mark Read, USMC (ret) and co-founder of EOD Technology, Inc. with Schonstedt instrument on the day Huntsville agreed that Schonstedt could be used for detection of subsurface UXO.

Schonstedt Instrument Company announces the formation of the Munitions Response Group.

The Group's function is two-fold:

• To encourage and focus communication with users of Schonstedt demining tools
• To foster collaboration with industry partners to advance UXO/IED detection capabilities

Visit the group's website at www.findUXO.com or email us at mrgroup@schonstedt.com

The Schonstedt GA-72Cd on display in the Visitors Lobby, United Nations Headquarters, New York.

(From the United Nation's wall placard) "The Schonstedt Instrument Company of West Virginia approached DPKO in 2007 with the concept for a Humanitarian Demining Initiative linking the donation of a Schonstedt magnetic locator (such as the one here) for use in locating UXO to the sale of other Schonstedt products. That concept was expanded to individual donations with the direct purchase of locators for donation by a meeting of Quakers from southern New Jersey. Since its inception in 2007, the Initiative has donated over 250 locators in coordination with UNMAS on behalf of the UN Mine Action Team (UNMAT) to under-funded mine action programmes including Somalia, Nepal, Mauritania, Chad, Viet Nam, Laos, Tajikistan and Egypt."

Donated Mine Detectors Bound for Darfur
A shipment of thirty mine detectors will soon be in the hands of United Nations humanitarian deminers in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The instruments have been donated by church groups, trade associations, individuals and customers of Schonstedt Instrument Company, which manufactures the demining tools and coordinates distribution to the world's most mine-infested countries.

Schonstedt matches each donated unit and ships them, according to UN priorities, to countries where humanitarian demining is most needed and where it would not otherwise be possible. There, demining teams find and clear explosive remnants of war such as cluster bombs, grenades, mortars, shells, landmines and other unexploded ordnance.

The shipment brings to over 250 the number of units, valued at $1041 each, currently at work in seventeen countries; among them Laos, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Nepal, Egypt, Croatia, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Chad and now Sudan.

In September 2008, Schonstedt Instrument Company and its customers donated thirty demining instruments to the Mine Action Centre for Testing, Development and Training (HCR-CTRO) in Zagreb, Croatia. There they were tested, accredited and integrated into a new training curriculum, with plans to further distribute them to UN Mine Action Programmes throughout the region.

On October 31, 2008, graduates of the first course in "Training for UXO Detection and Removal, Level 1" returned to their home countries of Serbia, Monte Negro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Croatia - along with the units they trained on

Schonstedt Instrument Company would like to congratulate Mr. Chris Clark and all the members of the UN Mine Action Programme in southern Lebanon on the announcement of the 2008 Nansen Award, the top distinction bestowed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for efforts to assist refugees. Mr. Clark and the programme were awarded the prize for their efforts to eliminate unexploded cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war after the 2006 conflict in Lebanon.

Schonstedt is proud that its magnetic locators served as an essential tool in the effort to locate and destroy unexploded cluster munitions and other devices to facilitate the safe and dignified return of refugees, pave the way for the delivery of humanitarian aid and ensure the safe deployment of peacekeepers.

The Mine Action Coordination Centre in southern Lebanon (MACC-SL) is managed by the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), with whom Schonstedt has collaborated over the last year to donate over 200 magnetic locators to chronically underfunded mine action programmes that do not receive the same attention and resources as that in Lebanon. Recipients to date have included Kenya, Somalia, Laos, Tajikistan, Nepal and Vietnam.

The donation of locators through the Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative was originally linked to the purchase of Schonstedt pipe and cable locators, but was expanded to include private individuals and groups interested in contributing directly to humanitarian demining. For those interested in supporting the initiative, please visit www.schonstedt.com or contact Bob Ebberson at bebberson@schonstedt.com or 304-724-4754.

View video

Due to an overwhelmingly positive response to our new training video, "An Introduction to Pipe and Cable Locating", Schonstedt is making this valuable training program available in DVD format, FREE to locating professionals. The DVD, suitable for both computers and DVD players, is chaptered into 12 segments, each covering a relevant "how-to" on underground P&C locating. Also included are libraries of still images and diagrams used in the video, for use in your own training program. Click here to order the FREE DVD online.

The U.S. Department of State is pleased to recognize Schonstedt Instrument Company's donation of over $75,000 worth of magnetic detectors to help humanitarian deminers locate and clear persistent landmines and explosive remnants of war.

Schonstedt Instrument Company, an employee-owned company in Kearneysville, West Virginia, is one of the 61 Public-Private Partners of the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. Since May 2007, the company, which manufactures specialized detectors used by survey, demining, utility, telecommunications, and energy firms around the world, has donated 74 of its GA-72Cd magnetic detectors for demining in Laos , Somalia , Tajikistan , and Vietnam , in coordination with the United Nations Mine Action Service. Some of the 20 detectors donated to Somalia have also been used by the International Mine Action Training Center in Kenya .

Read full article at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2008/feb/101190.htm