Jim Elliott's interest in Aurora runs deep.
I met the founder and president of Diveheart at poolside Saturday at the Fox Valley Park District's Vaughan Center, where he and his volunteers were teaching a class from the DuPage County Veterans Center the ins and outs – and unders – of scuba diving.
Diveheart, founded by Elliott in 2001, has created an impressive name for itself throughout the country by helping those with illnesses and disabilities discover the therapeutic wonders that this underwater activity can provide.
But Elliott's interest in Aurora goes far deeper than a park district pool.
For the past year he has been in close discussions with Shodeen Inc., the Geneva company that has been working with city officials to develop 34 acres on the east side of the Fox River in downtown Aurora.
Elliott's goal: to build what he said would be the world's deepest warm-water pool – 150 feet, to be exact – at the corner of Broadway and North Avenue that would be used for research, rehabilitation, education and training.
For those with limited mobility, the benefits of physical therapy in a zero gravity environment is well-documented. And more recent research from leading universities, including Johns Hopkins, shows that scuba diving has unique effects on the minds and bodies of those with many types of disabilities, including chronic pain, spinal cord paralysis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, autism, PTSD and brain injuries.
Elliott, whose group works extensively with Midwestern University in Downers Grove and is recently partnering with the engineering department at Northwestern University to develop scuba diving equipment for quadriplegics, said deep water not only offers hyperbaric oxygen therapy – "We are only at the tip of the iceberg there," he noted – but also the release of serotonin, a feel-good neurotransmitter that can do wonders to also combat depression.
In addition to physical benefits, "the confidence and independence" this activity builds can create a "paradigm shift in their potential," Elliott insisted. "When he comes out of the water, he's no longer Johnny in a wheelchair. He's Johnny the scuba diver."
Diveheart works to train those with disabilities in pools across the suburbs; and takes many of them on location to such places as Cozumel, Mexico. Saturday's training at the Vaughan Center was the first time the group worked with the DuPage vet center, and it will continue to do so in Aurora on the first Fridays of every month.
Elliott's desire to build a deep warm-water pool is not new. He'd been working with the Veterans Administration to build a 44-foot pool after the VA had "mothballed its own" warm water pool decades earlier, he said. But in 2010, about the same time he and the VA were making presentations in Washington, D.C., to fund this project, he said, new research showed that in order to "get that serotonin fix" you had to go at least 66 feet. And to do any technical diving, which leads to more commercial opportunities, you have to go beyond 130 feet.
Extending the plans to 150 feet was made after Elliott learned of a 137-foot facility in Italy. "Why not go deeper," he asked, in order to lay claim to the world's deepest pool.
Elliott became interested in Aurora after speaking at a Rotary meeting over a year ago. Charlie Zine, a member of the FoxWalk Overlay District Design Review Committee, pointed out some reasons Aurora would make an excellent choice. Not only is the city close to Chicago's world-class medical research institutions, it had its own airport, a train station within walking distance and a parcel of land – near the river, no less – that had once been a landfill, which would make that deep dig less difficult.
Zine put him in touch with Dave Patzelt, president of Shodeen, who they said saw the potential of this project immediately. Elliott has also met with all four mayoral candidates, who he described as "very excited" about the project
According to Aurora spokesman Clayton Muhammad, Diveheart has been engaged in preliminary talks with the city, but have filed no formal plans yet.
"Once that happens," he noted, officials "will be able to have more in-depth discussions with the Diveheart team."
Zine, in the meantime, is both optimistic and excited about the way this project could develop.
"I'm always looking for things that make sense in downtown Aurora," he said. "And this is the spark that could really make a difference."
Not only is it a well-researched and compelling project, Diveheart already has what he described as "a world-class team" in place – including architects Perkins + Will, the medical consulting firm Prism Healthcare Partners and CASE Construction – to turn the dream into a reality.
While Elliott's goal is to eventually offer four pools on a three-acre site near the river, the current plan is for a beginner pool that will go down 20 feet and a second pool that, for the first 33 feet will be housed "in glass above-grade" and will contain ledges every 33 feet thereafter. The bottom, he said, would be at least 20 feet wide and be able to hold eight divers.
"Putting a Starbucks in downtown Aurora may be a lot easier," noted Elliott, but the payoff on this unique project could be a game-changer.
"It could have a huge impact on this city," agreed Zine. "It would be a unique institution and Aurora would be uniquely qualified to make it a success."
Dcrosby@tribpub.com
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