In 2012 Action Scuba is celebrating 15 great years of helping Montrealers fulfill their scuba diving dreams. And we kicked off the season with a 3 day customer appreciation event that included a sale and a BBQ. We wanted to have some fun and celebrate with our customers.

We had originally planned a free BBQ to reward our divers. After giving it some thought, we asked ourselves "what do our diver care about most? Free food, or the marine environment?". Well, like most divers, we all really enjoy a free burger now and then. But even more than that, we also enjoy preserving our environment!

So, in keeping with our long history of promoting Project AWARE  and marine conservation, we decided to make our BBQ a fundraiser for this great cause. In exchange for a $1 donation to Project AWARE (or more if desired), we would supply our divers with a BBQ lunch, paid for by Action Scuba.

And thanks to our divers, we raised over $100 for Project AWARE in just 2 hours of BBQing!

More importantly, we raised awareness.

Because we are located on a busy street in Montreal`s West Island, we had a few non-divers stop by to ask about the event. We invited them to partake and took the opportunity to explain to them the mission of Project AWARE and the need for ocean conservation. In the end we had them pledging to visit the Project AWARE website and invited them to tell their friends all about the work that is being done.

We`re pleased to be able to help make a difference one diver (and non-diver!) at a time!

We`re planning more Project AWARE fundraisers this year! For example, we now have a Project AWARE donation box permanently set up on our checkout desk to encourage not only donations, but questions and discussion about the work being done. And we have more Dives Against Debris and Beach Clean-ups planned as well.

Stay tuned for more Project AWARE updates from Action Scuba Montreal!