For St. Louis Rotarian Matt Wilson, Air Force veteran John Hartwell, and the Downtown St. Louis Rotary Club II, an afternoon of sports fun and fellowship evolved into substantially more. During a Rotary Golf scramble, Matt met Danny Baker, a wheelchair golfer. In learning of both Matt’s love of scuba diving, Danny suggested Matt connect with Charlie Wilson, a physical therapist in the spinal cord unit at the VA, as he, too, was an avid diver, and Matt did just that.
In talking with Charlie, Matt learned that Charlie was developing strategies involving adaptive scuba-diving, Scubility, which would complement recreational therapy for those with mobility impairments. Matt was impressed by Charlie’s passionate interest in creating a non-profit that would offer veterans, first responders and civilians with mobility issues opportunities to discover and become certified in scuba. Underwater, divers experience weightlessness and those with mobility impairments find that they can move independently and easily underwater just like everyone else. Divers also report significant relief from chronic pain in the water and for several days beyond. As LifeWaters co-founder Charley Wright reminds, “You don’t need a wheelchair in the water.”
Charlie shared that he had everything in place to do this, except— he had no funding or business expertise. “Charlie told me his dream about LifeWaters and what his therapy was, and (he)was trying to figure out how to put it together,” Wilson said. With that, Rotarian, businessman, and former Marine Matt Wilson partnered with PT and veteran Charlie Wright to create LifeWaters: Matt handles donations, grants, and financial transactions, while, as a trained Scuba Diving International Scubility diver, works with Charlie to prepare participants for dives and to asset divers in entering and exiting the water. “Once in the water, it is all Charlie,” Matt comments. “He is absolutely incredible when working with the ALS divers.”
Lifewaters has grown to include diverse opportunities including monthly dive sessions in the Jefferson Barracks pool for physical, mental, and emotional therapy. Beyond the diving introduction and certification training, Lifewaters sponsors periodic dive trips around the country and has facilitated five Hero Dives.
“The Hero Dive came about a few years ago. We had a veteran here locally diagnosed with ALS. His wish was to scuba dive and to do that with his family,” explains Wright. Although Hero Dives have a somber tone, everyone involved knows the value and absolute honor of granting a Veteran one of their final wishes, commented a recent KSDK news article.
As fellow Downtown St. Louis Rotarians have learned about the work, and especially the Hero Dive program at LifeWaters, they have fallen in love with it. Dr. Beth Russell, a past president of the Rotary Club, offered, “LifeWaters was presented to us as a potential program. That’s how we began our journey and then, of course, having members of our club diving with the veterans. So, over the years with our community service opportunities, the grants that we’ve given, we’ve gotten to know a lot more about Charley and LifeWaters.”
Ken Schuman with the Rotary Club’s endowment fund said Club 11 was excited about the Hero Dive. “The endowment fund (was) looking for a … project that (wasn’t) funded through other Rotary programs, so we were happy to listen to somebody with a unique and different program,” he explained.
St. Louis Rotary explored the program and learned that LifeWaters covers all the costs for the veterans and their families. They rely on donations and grants, and securing those falls to co-founder and club member Matt Wilson. He brought the program to Club 11, sharing that a grant of $12,000. would be needed to cover travel, lodging, and food for the participant and his or her family as well as for the specially trained support Hero Dive team.
St. Louis Rotary stepped up, and, before the pandemic, pledged to finance the next scheduled Hero Dive, whenever it was scheduled.
“Whenever” finally arrived in mid-May, 2021, when Air Force veteran John Hartwell traveled to Atlanta to take the plunge. Five years ago, Miami native John had been diagnosed with ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. John commented he “never realized how much support there was for the veterans,” and was grateful when he received the chance to re-live a passion from earlier in his life; scuba diving: a dream made possible by LifeWaters and Rotary.
For the Hero Dive, LifeWaters takes the hero to a controlled environment to scuba and snorkel. Charlie Wright explained that “a controlled environment is easier to deal with for those with ALS.” John Hartwell visited the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, because, smiled Charlie, “…you always know what you are going to get and there is a 100% chance you are going to run into a whale shark.”
John was thrilled and hoped to “see something” while he was diving. “Most of the other times (I’ve) been diving, (I) rarely see anything big and there are plenty of things out there, can’t wait,” he added.
As Hartwell had no control over his upper body, he needed helpers to get into the water. “There is a lot of trust in this, going in the water,” said Matt Wilson. “You are talking about the fact that they can’t save themselves if something goes wrong and the trust they put in the LifeWaters team going there and being there.”
After multiple attempts, Hartwell wasn’t able to stay under water for a dive, due to the ravages of his ALS. Wright promised him “a big swim with the whale sharks.”
John was not disappointed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he said. “This whole group has been fantastic. I’m just very lucky that I got picked for this. What can I say? Absolutely great.”
John Hartwell definitely put the “Hero” in LifeWaters fifth Hero Dive. “I really appreciate these guys helping me out like that, just made it really easy.” Charlie Wright and Matt Wilson deserve profound praise for helping yet another veteran experience life beyond debilitating disease and/or traumatic injury. Downtown St. Louis Rotary Club 11 is honored to have supported their noble mission.