DIVING THROUGH TRAGEDY FAMILY STARTS HEALING AFTER THE LOSS OF THEIR SON THE DONNELL FAMILY, KSC AMBASSADORS
By Jessica Donnel l My husband Doug and I have been scuba diving for the better part of 26 years. Before having kids, we enjoyed diving together in many dive destinations worldwide. Diving has always been a pleasant temporary escape from the everyday world for us. It provides a quiet peace that we have not often found top side. Doug and I are retired US Marines, and when we had our sons, we stopped diving like most families have done when starting a family. When our youngest turned 10, the age PADI allows kids to become Jr. Open Water divers, we heavily fostered both boys’ interest in becoming certified divers. Doug and I were very excited to have our boys as dive buddies; it was a long-awaited dream come true. Josh and Sam started their course at home, and we flew to Jamaica to complete their PADI courses. We quickly learned that most of the dive industry did not seem to safely cater to youth divers. Smaller gear and
experience were rugged to come by. After the certification process, we experienced it in Jamaica, where they
in the Cayman Islands in 2019. Josh and Sam met other certified diving kids to have fun and create new friendships with them. They dove with knowledgeable, kid-friendly instructors who improved their diving skills and kept them safe. Throughout the trip, we all had fun with karaoke, Pirates, treasure hunts, and many other family activities. Doug and I had a worry-free trip and enjoyed scuba diving with our boys on the family dives and with other parents on the adult dives. Doug and I could not have been happier watching the kids bond, sing, dive, laugh, and enjoy daily. TRAGEDY Sadly, shortly after that beautiful week, tragedy struck our family, and our oldest son, Josh, passed away. This devastated our family, and it was next to impossible to navigate the best way to move forward and experience joy again, for Sam’s sake. If that wasn’t enough, COVID showed up. An
basically completed the training dives in a day and a half, and it was very rushed. The instructors were not at all nurturing and clearly did not understand the difference between a child student and an adult. After waiting over 10 years to dive with our kids, we wanted them to have a safe, fun, positive experience. We did not want them to be scared; unfortunately, that was precisely what happened in the process. After returning from that trip, we began searching for what we, as parents, considered a safer option. Then we found Kids Sea Camp, and what an amazing find it was. A place where families from around the world could come together and meet other like-minded families and enjoy a safe, fun scuba diving family vacation. There was plenty of time together with our boys to be enjoyed while there was also time apart. Our first Kids Sea Camp was
www.familydivers.com 803-419-2556 dive@familydivers.com
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