By Founder and President Kurt Lieber

One of the driving forces that made me want to start Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) in the first place, was to educate people about the beauty and diversity of our underwater world. 

Beautiful underwater world of the Island of Hawai'i, by ODA volunteer Bo Pardau

The vast majority of people only experience the oceans by watching a documentary on TV or by going to the beach where they may venture a quick dip in the water.  But rarely will they get to put on a mask, fins, and snorkel to go explore what can’t be seen from the surface.

This is even true throughout the Hawaiian Islands. The opportunity to explore the underwater world seems to be more available if you have disposable income, which we know is not the case for a lot of people who live and work in Hawai’i. It’s mostly the domain of the well-to-do vacationers.

Big Island spinner dolphins by ODA volunteer Bo Pardau

I’ve been talking about this with a lot of our core divers.  It’s been frustrating to me to see very few “locals” get to experience the magic of the oceans through their own eyes.

From left to right: ODA Southern California volunteer Kim Cardenas, Kurt Lieber, Sarah Milisen and Kay Cooper

We’ve all wondered if ODA might one day be able to sponsor some young people on the islands to get scuba certified. I’ve also talked about this with some of our donors. Everyone I’ve brought this up with thinks that it would be a GREAT idea!  So, we’ve earmarked funds to launch a sponsorship program that will give 14 young people the opportunity to obtain their scuba certification. We’ve been reaching out to some local schools looking for interested students in the 15-to-18-year-old range.

Our two main volunteers on the Island of Hawai’i, Kay Cooper (Kohala area) and Sarah Milisen (Kona area), have been leading ODA underwater cleanups here on the Big Island, and both are scuba instructors. Kay teaches classes through her employer, Kohala Divers.

Kay (in red) and Sarah (in blue) give dive orientation at an ODA cleanup.

After discussing this program with Rebekah Kaufmann, who owns Kohala Divers, we all decided to start the program using their facility and dive boat.

At Kohala Divers shop - owner Rebekah Kaufman and Kurt Lieber

The goal of this program is to show young people what the oceans hold in store for them. There is much beauty to behold, but they will also see the reality of ocean debris when they participate in one of our underwater debris cleanups as part of the program.

Here are some happy young students from a previous Kohala Divers class -- we can't wait to have photos like this of our own!

If this works out, and I can’t see why it wouldn’t, we’ll offer this once a year to the students in the local high schools on the north part of the island. If we can continue to raise funds for this, we’d like to expand this to the Kona area high schools…and hopefully onto Oahu and Maui as well.

I invite you to learn more about this on our website. If you live on the Island of Hawaii and have a teenager you’d like to see get involved with this, you’ll find the application link here, too, on the scholarship program website page.

This is going to be an exciting next step for ODA.  Can’t wait to see some more young people in the water!