What provides a sense of weightlessness and freedom? To an astronaut it’s outer space. To Jim Elliott, it’s scuba diving.

Elliott is the founder of Diveheart, a nonprofit program he created to give people with disabilities the chance to experience what it’s like to break away from the burdens of their physical limitations. He does it by teaching them how to scuba dive. 

“It’s the only physical activity that has no gravity, so you take people out of wheelchairs and you put them in the water, and it’s like they can fly,” said Elliott.

Diveheart, based in Downers Grove, Illinois, recently received a grant from the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs to give veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other injuries the opportunity to learn how to scuba dive for free.

“There’s a real need to reach out to these guys and gals and get them in the water and turn their lives around,” said Elliott.

Find out more about Diveheart and the  Diveheart Military Wounded program at www.diveheart.org.

News Source:  Huffington Post

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