39 replies to this topic

[jextract]

http://wrigley.usc.e...ic/donlevel.htm

[finGrabber]

http://www.diversale...k.org/index.asp

[finGrabber]

http://www.divemagaz....html#charities

http://www.ssiusa.co...fm?story_id=461

[finGrabber]

this is an interesting idea:

http://www.scubamadn...om/monopoly.htm

here is some PADI stuff:

http://www.projectaw...onservation.asp

[triggerfish]

ok.
i know i'm a little prejudiced here.

but to me, CHARITY means just that....giving to something that truly needs the help. donating to environmental causes is certainly worthwhile and necessary. but it's just THAT....a donation.
"diving charities"....with the exception of HSA.....is kind of a misnomer. yeah. you want to support your sport, but for what? a tiny line printed in a yearly report?

donating to a "people" charity actually aids PEOPLE....families with no homes, sick kids, no education. and don't start in with the scandals that surrounded united way or whatever it was. yes it happens. but rarely. i'm unfortunately learning first hand what families have to deal with in a health crisis. hospital bills are bad enough. then you go home, and there's rehab. visiting nurses. outpatient chemo/radiation. and other kids. and a MORTGAGE. insurance only covers so much. a donation to a foundation that helps these families is a huge help to that family.

so i agree with walter. we should donate to our sport. the site will get its publicity, and its name in a report.
but we should also give to people, and get in return that good feeling you get when you know you helped someone out in a time of need.

thanks.

(ps...good god, i reread this and i sound like an infomercial. sorry. but i truly believe this.)

[Marvel]

I agree with TriggerFish here. I belong to a church that is hugely involved in helping PEOPLE- housing for the homeless, feeding the homeless, halfway houses, assistance to families in difficult life situations. They even have an arrangement with Florida Power & Light to pay electric bills of people who's electricity is going to be shut off because of life circumstances.

So, when it comes to giving to organizations, I vote for organizations such as the Ronald McDonald foundation, the Shriner's hospital (who are caring for, & will be performing multiple surgeries on my youngest grandson for free)- organizations that help people in direct and tangible ways. There is already major corporate funding going to research in all those admittedly worthwhile causes. But, to know that my time & money make a difference in even a single life- that's my idea of charity.

[WreckWench]

Thank you ladies for your heartfelt outpourings....as SD grows we will be looking for organizations/people that can be a worthy cause or charity for our organization's efforts to help and give back for all the graces and riches that we have.

I doubt our efforts we'll ever be a line item on an annual report nor do I particularily care to be. I have asked for ideas on various charities and causes that we could support...both people as well as organizations...diving related such as my two favorite HSA and Toys for the Children as well as non-diving related...Make A Wish another personal favorite of mine and now Kenny...an adorable child related to one of our members....so thanks to you all...I've been getting what I asked for! Thank you all! Kamala

P.S. Please keep the ideas flowing in! -ww

[WreckWench]

Charity has been chosen by Tony Smith for the....

World Record Diving Attempt

An official date of August 28th – 31st 2004 has been set for a World’s Record “World’s Longest Scuba-dive” attempt by an experienced Diver from Scottsville, Kentucky by the name of Tony Smith. (Also a member of SingleDivers.com!) As with any outdoor event, the weather and various other factors will determine the exact date of this event but will be held approximate to this date. The location of this dive has been set at a large spring-fed quarry (technically a lake to satisfy record requirements) just north of Fort Campbell Army base in a town called Hopkinsville, in Western Kentucky. The name of this facility is Blue Springs Resort/Pennyroyal Scuba Center. The current Record of 71 hours, and 40 minutes was set by a Tennessee Diver by the name of Jerry Hall in August, 2002. Although the body of water Tony Smith will be diving in well exceeds 100 feet in depth, Tony will only be reaching a maximum depth of 35 feet, and if all goes accordingly will exceed the current record, and will push for a 100 plus hour mark.

This event will not only be carried out for the purpose of human endurance, but also for the sake of scientific study. This dive will be monitored by many professionals from the Medical field, well documented with official written logs, underwater photography, underwater video, and much more. Various organizations including a number of University’s (Duke, Vanderbilt, etc…) Scientific Studies Departments have been invited to participate, in collecting scientific data. The diver’s vitals will be monitored around the clock throughout the duration of this very lengthy dive. With the constant monitoring, mental awareness tests, and memory tests, Tony will be very busy during this lengthy, but hopefully productive underwater endeavor.

The dive will also allow for Tony to promote additional awareness for DAN's medical research efforts and a fund raiser for those efforts is being mounted by SingleDivers.com on Tony's behalf. SingleDivers.com will allow its members as well as the entire dive shop and dive club community the opportunity to pledge monies based upon the number of hours Tony is able to sustain this endurance dive or make a flat donation for this worthy cause. All funds collected will go directly into DAN's gifting program and a special Fund has been set up so that ALL monies raised will be earmarked and go directly into pure additional medical research about all environmental diving factors upon the body including endurance dives such as these.
A lot of the equipment for this World-Record dive attempt will be exclusively custom-made, or furnished by sponsoring Companies, and some designed specifically for this dive. (Oceanreef, White’s Drysuits, Cochran dive computers, etc…) Assuming the logos are furnished, their company names, and equipment will be given public exposure in gratitude for making this event possible. “This is a team effort, not glory for one man”, Tony Smith will be very quick to let you know. “This is a team effort, and contrary to popular belief, space is not the final frontier.”
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Tony’s support team will consist of 30 plus professionals, and safety divers including a Physician/Medical professional to monitor his condition around the clock, a highly experienced Dive Supervisor, not to mention the army of support divers from both the Professional, and Technical areas of the Diving Industry who will be with Tony at all times. The list of experience of this team that has been assembled for this event is far too extensive to go into here. Needless to say, Tony will be in very capable hands, and has all the necessary support, and safety nets available.

Tony will also undergo a monitored recovery process for several days for much the same reason as an astronaut (also a weightless environment) returning from space would.

We are expecting the media coverage to be very good for this event. The companies who are involved should get some great publicity from this World Record attempt. We will be contacting all the appropriate news sources to inform them when, and where this International event will happen, and expect to see them sending news crews up for live coverage of the dive. One of the major companies (Oceanreef out of Italy) supporting this event has promised the use of a remote transmitter that the news agencies can hook-up to transmit live underwater audio/video feed from. Exposure will depend ofcourse on what happens to be on the news that day, but it could most definitely receive some great attention for both the Diving Industry, the companies involved, and their products. We are very pleased with the eager response from companies interested in supporting this event.

If you have any questions, please email Tony at tssplash@aol.com.


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[WreckWench]

Hey I just got this about the REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation) (reef.org) organization from one of our members...this seems like a great organization! -ww

... On my first REEF trip to St. Croix my roomie was a former Ph.D. chemist with a major chemical company who had been diving for 20 years or so.  And he wasn't the most experienced diver on the trip!  The REEF members are a cut above the usual dive trip groups in education, maturity and just generally all around niceness.  We are people on a mission.  We learn new things on every trip about fish ID and behavior.  The REEF staff that lead the trips give great lectures in the evenings and are very experienced at what they do.  I generally run into one or two people I've already dove with on their trips and sometimes I'm even able to sync with people who I've been with before and are planning trips.

[ScubaHawk]

I was thinking about diving related charities for the Cozy auction when I tought of the programs that let children with mental illness and phisical disabilities play with dolphins. It supposed to be quite helpfull in many of the cases. (One of the dolphins on my x-mas poem is a healer dolphin)
Here's a couple of links.

http://www.gulfarium.com/jfdolphin.htm

http://www.islanddolphincare.org/

[Terri]

(One of the dolphins on my x-mas poem is a healer dolphin)

Is that Theresa??

[ScubaHawk]

(One of the dolphins on my x-mas poem is a healer dolphin)

Is that Theresa??

She's the one. She's the mother of the clan.

[chinacat46]

I'm a member of REEF and do fish ids for them. One thing I like about their web page is they have fish id quizes which will help the average diver become better at identifying fish. Another good site with fish id quizes is fishid

REEF is free to join.

Edited by chinacat46, 02 December 2004 - 11:40 AM.

[Terri]

(One of the dolphins on my x-mas poem is a healer dolphin)

Is that Theresa??

She's the one. She's the mother of the clan.

[WreckWench]

I was thinking about diving related charities for the Cozy auction when I tought of the programs that let children with mental illness and phisical disabilities play with dolphins. It supposed to be quite helpfull in many of the cases. (One of the dolphins on my x-mas poem is a healer dolphin)
Here's a couple of links.

http://www.gulfarium.com/jfdolphin.htm

http://www.islanddolphincare.org/

Hey this is really cool...maybe this is one of the diving related charities that is just that... a real charity and yet diving related! Thanks ScubaHawk!