Ally

PROVIDENCE – Ocean Opportunity is one of nearly 100 nonprofits nationwide to share roughly $900,000 in Quality of Life Grants from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

The local group will use its $2,250 award to distribute a new short film – about its “Diving a Dream” project – to adaptive scuba groups and paralysis, muscular dystrophy, respiratory care support groups nationwide, Ocean Opportunity founder and director Michael Lombardi told Providence Business News in an e-mail interview.

The three-year project helped MD sufferer Matthew Johnson, who was 27 when the effort began in 2004, to become the world’s first ventilator-dependent quadriplegic diver. His ocean dive last November was broadcast on NBC’s “Today” show in January.

“I am incredibly honored to have the support of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation for our Diving a Dream project,” Lombardi said in a statement this morning, adding: “With the support of such a prominent foundation, we are excited about the prospect of directing our work to a more focused population and … offering a ray of hope to those struggling in all walks of life.”

Lombardi – who founded Ocean Opportunity in 2003 – was honored this summer by PBN as one of this year’s 40 Under Forty for his efforts with the nonprofit and its Diving a Dream project, as well as his leadership in undersea exploration and technology and his publication of articles in the field. (READ MORE) “Within the creative depths of human intellect, there lie Oceans of Opportunity,” he says on the OO Web site.

The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for spinal-cord injury and improving the quality of life for people with paralysis. Its Quality of Life program, established in 1999 by the late Dana Reeve, has provided 1,262 grants totaling more than $10 million to organizations that help people with paralysis and other disabilities and their families to participate in all areas of life. To learn more, visit www.ChristopherReeve.org.

Ocean Opportunity is a Providence-based nonprofit dedicated to improving the quality of life on Earth by facilitating marine science and technology efforts and helping create an ocean-literate society. To learn more, visit www.oceanopportunity.com or www.divingadream.org.