Stay-Focused Conducts Fifteenth Program!

The third program of summer 2008 brought six, first-time divers together including our first mother and daughter team. Participants included Katie Chasar, Chelsea Crytzer, Jessica Ebanks, Derry Hill, Ryan
Neiswender, and Joenell Parsons (Jessica’s mom).

Leading the Program

Joining the group were: Roger Muller, Founder/President of Stay-Focused, Trisha Yurochko, Stay-Focused Board member and diving regular, John Dorn, a nurse and head of the adolescent unit at Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside, NJ, and Stay-Focused diving instructors Marty Banks, Richard Smart, and Tony Chisholm. Brian Siemann, a Stay-Focused alumnus, served as our mentor for the first-time divers, and Ryan Chalmers, also a Stay-Focused alum, and Jake Zalewski, assisted as well.



Trisha Yurochko and John Dorn took over responsibility for the Stay-Focused medical research agenda by recording spirometer readings for each first-time diver three times daily and making sure the DAN diving profiles were completed each evening. Thanks, Trisha and John! We also continued to collect information on diving profiles by making sure dive monitors were placed on each BC.

As always, many thanks to Stay-Focused videographer, Chris Brandson, for his ongoing support in capturing the fun and magic of this and all our trips. And, thanks as well to the diving instructors (Andy Croft, John “Freddy” Frederick, Lauren Janssen, Sarah Lown, and Paul Thompson) who volunteered their time to help out – very much appreciated!



Upgraded Diving Certifications



On this trip, Brian Siemann’s diving certification was upgraded to Open Water diver and Ryan Chalmers achieved his Advanced Open Water certification. Way to go Brian and Ryan!

 

Responsibility Code

As part of each trip, we either create or re-visit our Responsibility Code, which simply outlines the rules of conduct we all agree to abide by during our time together. Here’s what the group agreed to:

1. Be on time
2. Stay hydrated!
3. Respect one another
4. Stay together with your dive buddy
5. Show support for one another
6. Keep track of your own dive gear
7. Have fun!


Overall, the group did an excellent job respecting the tenets of the Responsibility Code they crafted. Congratulations!

DIVER

On each trip we also contemplate the acronym DIVER and assign words to each letter that reflect the collective opinion of the group. Here are the words this group chose:

D Determination
I Incredible
V Valuable
E Exceeding
R Responsibility

As with all our groups, this group showed a lot of determination in overcoming fears (sharks!) and challenges. Diving in the beautiful Cayman water was indeed incredible and lessons learned from the Stay-Focused experience were considered valuable by all. The trip exceeded expectations, which is always nice to hear and everyone acted responsibly. Well done!

Goals for 2008/2009

At the end of the trip, each member of the group set a goal for the coming year. The goals are meant to be individualistic, realistic and measurable. Here they are:

Brian: Complete two full marathons

Chelsea: 17 minutes for 5000 meter

Derry: Breaking 1000 on combined verbal/quant SATs

Jessica: Good grades – 3As & 4 Bs

Joenell: Losing 40 pounds …

Katie: Acceptance into first-choice college

Ryan: Fifteen 3-pointers during basketball season

Good luck to all of you in achieving your goals!

Roger Muller
Founder/President
August 2008