Veterans learn to dive for Free in PA and NJ! Liquid Therapy!

[gypsyjim]

I never thought to ask if Donna would like donations of gear.
I do remember her telling us at BTS that she was providing all the gear for the vets she is training, out of her own pocket.
Donna?

 

[drydiver]

Donna, are you working with a vet this weekend, or getting in some of your own diving?

I actually did some personal diving up at Dutch this weekend for the first time this year, it was a chilly 48 at 70', brrr!

Donna do you accept used dive gear if so I will sort through my stuff and send what I can.

Also I want to thank you for what you are doing I did two combat tours in Viet Nam and know what your program will mean to those Veterans who partake in it.

Thank You again !!

Hiya East End Diver! I do, but it needs to be a manufacturer that is able to be serviced by my sponsor dive shop, Diveseekers. I will shoot you a PM and we can take the discussion offline, thank you for the offer!!

Welcome Home and Thank You for your service! I am thrilled to hear from Veterans who think Liquid Therapy Diving is a good idea, thanks for saying so

 

[Altamira]

Donna,
As a retired military vet, I salute you for what you are doing for our veterans, disabled or not. I have had the opportunity to see what a fabulous impact you and people like John Duggan (Duggan Diving in San Antonio) are having on restoring a sense of pride and accomplishment to our vets that have given so much for the protection of our nation. There is a special place in heaven for people like you. Thank you for what you are doing.

 

[drydiver]

Donna,
As a retired military vet, I salute you for what you are doing for our veterans, disabled or not. I have had the opportunity to see what a fabulous impact you and people like John Duggan (Duggan Diving in San Antonio) are having on restoring a sense of pride and accomplishment to our vets that have given so much for the protection of our nation. There is a special place in heaven for people like you. Thank you for what you are doing.

Thank you for the kind words Altamira! Well, I am not so sure about restoring the sense of pride, learning something totally new can be a humbling experience Restoring fun is more my aim and so far, that is exactly what has happened, they really seem to be enjoying themselves.

Cute story, I have this one vet buddy pair who have been friends since they were kids. One of them has convinced the other they should learn to dive. The less confident one showed up to confined water training wearing Captain America trunks and tshirt. I could not control my left eyebrow from raising and asking "really?!" He replied with something along the lines of psyching himself up to rock training. It worked, he did!

 

[Altamira]

They take pride in achieving a hard goal in which the outcome is uncertain. The fun is icing on the cake. I'll bet most of your vets never thought they would be scuba diving, and your generosity of time and resources have given them the opportunity to see and have fun in our magnificent underwater world. Thank you again.

 

[Spack9]

This is the best diving program I have ever heard of. Donna, I emailed the Liquid Therapy Diving address with a few questions. I can recruit some people here on base who would love to learn. Thank you for all you are doing, it is truly incredible.

 

[gypsyjim]

Donna do you accept used dive gear if so I will sort through my stuff and send what I can.

Also I want to thank you for what you are doing I did two combat tours in Viet Nam and know what your program will mean to those Veterans who partake in it.

Thank You again !!

Hiya East End Diver! I do, but it needs to be a manufacturer that is able to be serviced by my sponsor dive shop, Diveseekers. I will shoot you a PM and we can take the discussion offline, thank you for the offer!!

Welcome Home and Thank You for your service! I am thrilled to hear from Veterans who think Liquid Therapy Diving is a good idea, thanks for saying so

What sort of gear, brands can you handle, and/or would you like?

What can we, other divers do to help you? You mentioned letting vets in the region know of your offer, and I know you have been funding Liquid Therapy out of your own pocket, at least so far.

Is there a way to donate extra gear or $$, to help your project to reach more vets?

 

[drydiver]

This is the best diving program I have ever heard of. Donna, I emailed the Liquid Therapy Diving address with a few questions. I can recruit some people here on base who would love to learn. Thank you for all you are doing, it is truly incredible.

Thank you for the kind words and for reaching out Spack9, sounds like we will be meeting soon

 

[drydiver]

What sort of gear, brands can you handle, and/or would you like?

What can we, other divers do to help you? You mentioned letting vets in the region know of your offer, and I know you have been funding Liquid Therapy out of your own pocket, at least so far.

Is there a way to donate extra gear or $$, to help your project to reach more vets?

Gear donations can be tricky and I have a couple of thoughts on that. First, my sponsor shop, www.diveseekers.com must be able to service it and while they carry a ton of lines, they don't do all of them. Then I have to pay for parts and labor to ensure the gear is safe to dive. Second, as many know, I am a believer of the BP&W system, so all my students train in that configuration. Third, I do not own a facility, so storage is an issue now. Diveseekers currently provides the confined water pool time, classroom time, tanks, BC's, regs, weights and air at no charge. We provide fins, masks, snorkels & boots and I am slowly gathering that inventory in a variety of sizes.

The best way to help is to get the word out and to donate through paypal on my website or mail a check. We received our 501(3)c approval from the IRS earlier this year, so donations are tax deductible. I have had a ton of start up costs and you are correct, those have been personally funded. In addition to the start up business costs such as registration fees, legal stuff, insurance, website, etc there are gear costs and elearning/training materials/certification costs per diver. There are absolutely no labor costs, I am a volunteer and anyone who works for us will be also.

Another way to help is to support my sponsor dive shop. This may be crossing the line in the thread a bit, but without their support in a bjillion ways, I would not have made it this far without them. If you have a choice of where to buy gear either locally or online, I recommend supporting a shop that supports our veterans. When they do well, they are able to support me, it's a simple as that.

 

[gypsyjim]

I'm glad you clarified the idea of donating gear.
I had not throught that through far enough when the idea came up, to imagine the possible hodgepodge of gear you might then need to get serviced and to store, let alone how you might want a standardization of gear you provide for your classes.

Teaching vets in bp/w set-ups makes sense, especially since that is your specialty, and vets do tend to be more technical equipment oriented people than your typical vacation diver type of student might be.