Please hit the more link below to read the full announcement about the grant that has been awarded to this new BSAC snorkelling initiative.

Dear Branch Officer

I am writing to you with some exciting news. BSAC has been awarded a grant to help towards “Snorkelling For All”, a project that we hope will introduce snorkelling to a new range of people as well as enabling BSAC to develop snorkellers into Snorkelling Instructors. We hope this campaign will be as successful as the annual ‘Try Dive’ initiative and promote the benefits BSA

C branch membership.

The grant has been awarded by Sport England and is particularly important to me as I am keen to encourage young people to participate in sport, support the growth of BSAC branches and to promote and develop snorkelling during my term as BSAC NDO.

My thanks must go to Bob Healey, a keen BSAC snorkeller and BSAC HQ staff for their perseverance and submitting the various applications. We have applied many times for this grant and so this is a land mark achievement for all concerned.

The official announcement of the project, plan and implementation will follow in the next two weeks, with details of how you can get involved and help BSAC promote ‘Snorkelling For All’ and train as snorkel instructors.

I look forward to working with you all on this project.
BSAC

Your Sincerely

Dr Jeff Reed
BSAC National Diving Officer

Please click the link below to read more about the course and how everyone went on!

The course had been written and was presented by Symon Dewsbury, a special needs teacher and one of the founder members of Tameside Titans.

The 3 hour course was held at Cromwell School, Dukinfield, a special needs school, and covered a variety of disabilities including autism, cerebral palsy, hearing and sight impairment plus many more and removed many of the stigmas and mysteries that many people have towards disabilities. It was a very practical course, Symon using various aids to simulate hearing and sight impairment so that students got some practical experience of how it felt to suffer from the various disabilities, even being fed by someone else and tasting thickened drinks.

All those who took part thoroughly enjoyed the experience and now all appreciate what we take for granted, some are never in that fortunate position, and not to judge a person by their looks or behaviour just to remember they are human beings in their own right.

The course was so successful we are considering running a further one later in the year, possibly November time. If anyone is interested please do contact me on bob@dolphindivers.co.uk for more information.

Bob Healey

They help fund many, many good causes, including our very own Dolphin Divers so please, give what you can

Thank You,
Ant.

This bit of news is relevant to full BSAC members only really but just in case anyone else is reading…

The BSAC Council elections will be happening very soon with members receiving their ballot cards in the April issue of Dive magazine.

The results will be announced at the BSAC AGM which is being held at Ellesmere Port Conservative Club on Saturday, 30th May, 2009 at 10 am.

So remember to get your ballot cards in as early as possible and obviously, vote for Bob and Pam!

Cheers,
Ant.

I would like to ask you all to join me in saying congratulations to our newly qualified Assistant Snorkel Instructors – Aaron Whitmore, Bradley Taylor and Kayleigh Pimblott who worked very hard this weekend.

It’s no easy task either! First, they had to pass a theory test to demonstrate their knowledge of snorkelling. Next, they had to give a lecture about a piece of snorkelling equipment. And finally, and probably most nerve-wracking, they had to teach a lesson in the pool!

Needless to say, they all came through with flying colours.

And while we’re on the subject, congratulations too must go to Tony Smith and Jon Ronzo who also received their Snorkel Instructor qualifications at the weekend. They only passed though because the kids were there to help them out

Congratulations!

Pam x

I would also like to thank all our members for putting on a good show and being particularly well behaved during the visit and making an excellent impression.

Thanks everyone,

Bob.

This should give everyone something to play with and we will be making extensive use of them so everyone will get to spend some ‘quality’ zipping about with them

Cheers,

Bob.