Western Bay of Plenty youth have been able to learn a skill to explore the depths of the underwater world thanks to the generosity of strangers from their own district.

Graeme Dingle Foundation WBOP regional manager Dan Allen-Gordon says five youth from Project K and four from the Big Buddy programme have learnt the skill of scuba diving via savvy fundraising by a Tauranga diving instruction business.

“It would never have crossed their minds to become a diver,” Dan says of the youth who enjoyed day one of their PADI open water dive course recently.

“Now they’ll be able to travel around the world to dive and maybe even teach others,” says Dan, who believes Project K builds confidence and resilience in young people.

“It was started by adventurer Sir Graeme Dingle and Jo-Anne Wilkinson, Lady Dingle, in 1995 and has been running in Tauranga since 2009.”

Via their own pay it forward’ campaign on their business website, Dive Zone Tauranga raised enough money to sponsor the nine youth to participate in a free entry-level scuba diving course last month.

“Everyone remembers their first day of learning to dive,” says Dive Zone owner Liz Plank.

“Our pool creates memories – so we asked our clients to donate so that those who wouldn’t normally get the opportunity could benefit from it.”

When Mount Maunganui College student Mia Donaldson found out she was going to learn to dive, she was very excited.

“It’s a great opportunity. It’s a little scary learning how to control everything in the water but it’s good.”

Her smile – evident in the photograph above – shows how she found the experience.

Liz admits the dive course at Dive Zone Tauranga isn’t always accessible to a lot of people due to cost.

“Once you’ve done it, though, you’ve got that skill for life as well as NCEA credits.

“I was proud to be able to offer these kids the opportunity to learn to dive and I would always like to be able to do more.”

To donate funds to get more Project K kids into the dive course, visit: https://www.divezonetauranga.co.nz/pay-it-forward