Need help 21 Jan 09 Laguna Beach Vets Project

[pasley]

Who: Challenges Foundation Veterans Project for disabled veterans who are active current patients at the VA. These patients are fully mobile.

When: 0700 Wed 21 Jan 2009

Where: Laguna Beach (site TBA)

What: We are doing 2 beach dives for Certification (Dives 1 and 2) and Snorkeling Dives (for those not able to dive). (Note this instruction is at no charge to the veterans.).

What we need: We need beach support for the following:

1. A Rescue or higher level diver (DM preferred) on the beach suited up and ready to enter the water if necessary. HSA training would be nice but not required for this dive.

2. A person, diver certification not required, with cell phone and preferable a strong back and weak mind to help move stuff to the beach (some have back issues and cannot schlep their gear to and from) to remain on the beach and call 911 if required.


We promise you the following:

About a half day on the beach with Veterans from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns.

The opportunity to help lug extremely heavy gear up and down steps at the dive site (probably Crescent, but could be Shaws or Divers Cove). The pay, well, I will say thank you.


If you can help, please let me know.

 

[fnfalman]

Count me in as a laborer. I'm an old soldier who's lucky enough not to have suffered disabling injuries while in the service.

 

[Codyjp]

Melvin, I just blocked it off on my schedule. I will be there. Just send me the details as we get closer. I'll be looking forward to the backache.

Thanks for doing this for the vets it is quite a wonderful project!

 

[pasley]

Thanks fnfalman and Codyjp for stepping up to the plate. Cody we will need you in wetsuit with fins, mask and snorkel as a standby rescue swimmer. You should not get wet if all goes well. If you want to bring your SCUBA gear, you might get a dive.
Fnfalman, please PM me your phone number. You will need to bring cell phone, and a strong back. Most of your time will be spent keeping Cody company on the beach, but it is the preferred safe way to go. A mask, fins and snorkel in the car just in case would add depth in the event something happens to Cody.

 

[pasley]

Thanks to the generous help of several wonderful people we have the volunteers for January 21st that we need (Cody and Fnfalman).

Additional Opportunities to help are:
You may also consider joining our efforts Welcome To The Challenges Foundation Website through the veterans project there we are teaching disabled veterans (patients at the VA) to scuba dive free of charge. Cash contributions are always welcome or the gift of your time is also needed. We need people to staff the following positions:

Public relations – get us some media attention
Funding – soliciting funding or in kind support (printing etc) from corporate sponsors etc
Logistics – take charge of the gear and position it prior to each class so each student can fall in on their gear and collect it up after class.
Dive Buddy – in water assisting the diver – requires SCUBA Certification from any agency and HSA Certification as Dive Buddy or higher
HSA Dive Master – Requires DM Certification from accredited agency (NAUI preferred) and HSA Certification as DM
HSA Assistant Instructor- Requires Assistant Instructor Certification from accredited agency (NAUI preferred) and HSA Certification as Assistant Instructor
HSA Instructor- Requires Instructor Certification from accredited agency (NAUI preferred) and HSA Certification as Instructor

Dive Heart (an affiliated organization based in Illinois) is running an HSA Certification class at the Aquarium of the Pacific 14-18 Jan 2009. From 14-16 the class is 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM, 17 & 18 Jan is all day.

SCUBA Experience January 16th at USC Pool. Here non-divers with disabilities will be introduced to SCUBA in the pool. We need safety divers, preferably with HSA Credentials as a Dive Buddy or higher, minimum requirement is RESCUE level diver.

January 24-25 the Aquarium of the Pacific is hosting an Abilities fair and we could use some help at the Challenges/Dive Heart booth there as well.

Currently we are working with Polytrauma, Traumatic Brain Injuries and Post Traumatic Stress (and its byproducts) patients at the West Los Angeles VA. Once we have sufficient staffing in place we plan to add the Long Beach VA Spinal Cord and Amputee patients to the mix.

 

[fnfalman]

Fnfalman, please PM me your phone number. You will need to bring cell phone, and a strong back. Most of your time will be spent keeping Cody company on the beach, but it is the preferred safe way to go. A mask, fins and snorkel in the car just in case would add depth in the event something happens to Cody.

Melvin, I'll bring my dive gears just in case I can join in the fun. BUT please be warned that I am neither a certified Rescue Diver nor am I a Dive Master. I'll be certified to provide grunt work and that's about all I'm certified to do.

 

[Codyjp]

Uhh Snorkel? I'll dig for it I am sure it is my garage somewhere

I will also bring my gear and I will probably be up for a dive post event if anybody is interested.