Affiliation with the PADI organization allows us to do more than simply teach and certify divers. For more than 43 years now, I’ve seen the PADI community open doors and change lives in ways the founders never would have imagined.

These include the PADI membership and organization raising $1 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association; the PADI Foundation advancing marine research, science and education by awarding $4.7 million in grants to 900 projects; and PADI AWARE Foundation’s work with members like you in supporting more than 300,000 community-based conservation initiatives around the globe, granting over $5 million to advance conservation research and education. Among so many tangible outcomes, this has helped protect 51 vulnerable shark and ray species – with the goal of an additional 54 more in the upcoming years.

At one time we all joined PADI so we could train and certify divers, and that’s the foundation of what it means to be part of “PADI.” But, more significantly, PADI membership also calls us to do – in the service of others, for the environment and for the future: Through you and me, enabling new career pathways, teaching coral replanting and restoration, debris removal and surveys, introducing people with physical challenges to a world in which they’re more mobile, gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures to protect threatened species, and so many other mission-related ways to encourage inclusion, exploration and ocean conservation.

As I mentioned recently, the PADI Professional’s Creed holds us to a high standard: We change fear into courage, faintheartedness into accomplishment, timidity into confidence, and anticipation into passion. We open hearts and minds to nature’s creations and protect them. We foster self-esteem, teach character and integrity, and change lives for the better.

Being a PADI Pro isn’t so much about what we get, but what it empowers us do and give through our united power to explore, nurture, discover, heal, protect, connect, transform, role model, influence and inspire across the planet.

Sincerely,

Drew Richardson
President & CEO

The post Straight Talk from PADI CEO: Reflections on Being Part of Global Force for Good appeared first on PADI Pros.

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