Diveheart
LAKE COUNTY NEWS-SUN
Deepest U.S. pool proposed for North Chicago would be a godsend for the disabled, planners say; ‘No one has ever done anything like this’
By CHLOE HILLES | chilles@chicagotribune.com |
Chicago Tribune
PUBLISHED: April 4, 2024 at 3:28 p.m. | UPDATED: April 5,
2024 at 10:53 a.m.
Erin Tunison dives with Diveheart’s founder Jim Elliot at the Elgin YMCA on March 23, 2019. (Credit: Eric Vaandering)
When Erin Tunison was finally submerged in the warm pool water, her once-clenched fists relaxed into wide-spread fingers. In a full scuba oxygen tank and mask, Tunison glided around the hotel pool in Downers Grove with the help of her father Mike and Diveheart founder Jim Elliott.
“She’s weightless underwater,” Mike Tunison said. “She gets so much out of it from the motor extension.”
On land, Erin Tunison, 34, uses a wheelchair to move around due to cerebral palsy, a congenital condition that affects movement and posture. But in the water, she has the mobility and dexterity that she wouldn’t experience elsewhere.
This rendering shows the depth of the pool proposed for North Chicago, which would be the deepest in the U.S. at 130 feet. (Photo courtesy of Diveheart)
Diveheart, a non-profit dedicated to building confidence, self-esteem and independence through adaptive scuba diving for people with physical and cognitive disabilities, launched a $300 million fundraising effort in February to build a three-pool scuba dive and scuba therapy facility in North Chicago, a suburb about 30 miles north of Chicago.
Plans for the facility include the deepest pool in the country at 130 feet to provide the experience of deep-water diving, with water pressure similar to a more than 10-story depth, but without the chill of the deep ocean or its currents.
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