Posted by Chamber Day on March 03, 2002 at 18:30:02:
CHAMBER DAY & EVE 2002
The 14th Annual Chamber Day and Chamber Evening will be held on Wednesday, May 1,
2002. Join the rest of the Southern California Diving Community for these enjoyable,
educational, and vital fund-raisers, which help ensure the continued operation of the
Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber.
Chamber Day is successful due to massive support from the dive community. The dive
boats and crews donate their time and fuel. Dive shops and clubs promote the event and
get their divers involved. Manufacturers donate raffle items. Volunteer divers serve as
divemasters for Chamber Day. Chamber Crew volunteer year-round at our Chamber. And
the Aquarium of the Pacific donates their facility to make Chamber Evening a reality.
Quite simply, Chamber Day is one day when everyone in the SoCal diving community
pitches in for a worthy cause.
The reason we all come together is to raise funds to ensure the continued operation of the
Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber. The Catalina Chamber is the only hyperbaric facility
dedicated to treating strictly diving accidents, and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, 365 days a year. With the closure of the Northridge Chamber and most other
chambers operating only during normal business hours, the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber
is more essential now to the well being of the diving community than ever before.
Although the Chamber receives funding from L.A. County, they must still raise a large
portion of their budget on their own. Chamber Day/Evening represents the largest single
outside source of funding for the Chamber.
Hyperbaric chambers are the only way to treat decompression sickness and air embolisms
that can result from diving. Our Chamber’s location on Catalina makes it easily accessible
from many of the prime diving sites in Southern California, especially for the large number
of divers who off Catalina each year. It is true that diving accidents are not an everyday
occurrence. However, when one happens, the availability of a convenient hyperbaric
chamber, any day of the week, any time of the day, all year round, can literally mean the
difference between life or death, or the difference between being paralyzed for life or
leading a normal life. Simply put, if our Catalina Chamber were forced to close, or even
just trim back operations, a safety net for all divers would disappear.
That’s why your support of this event is so critical. Last year, our combined total for all
aspects of the event was just over $80,000. And this year, we’d like to do even better.
Read on for the details.