10/15/2026
Thank you Mary and Ashlee for sharing your story with us! We are so fortunate to have you part of the Denver Adaptive Divers family!
"When your child has a disability
You become painfully aware of all the things they can’t do.
Learning how to scuba dive with Denver Adaptive Divers (DAD) changed that for me. It showed me all the wonderful—and hard—things my daughter, Mary, CAN do. More than that, it allowed me to dream about her future again.
I never imagined my child would learn how to scuba dive. It felt like such a far-off dream that I never even considered it an opportunity for her.
Then I saw an advertisement in the ARCH newsletter for DAD scuba training and a trip. Honestly, I thought it had to be some kind of scam. It sounded too good to be true. But we
decided to pursue the opportunity anyway.
She loved the “Try Scuba” class at Denver Divers and didn’t want to leave the water.
Then Mary was selected as one of the children from Children’s Hospital to receive training and travel to the Cayman Islands to become a certified scuba diver!
I learned alongside her.
Every skill I struggled with, she completed with ease and grace. She was a natural. And I believe so much of that was because of the skilled, patient, and confident instructors at
Denver Adaptive Divers, who have spent more than 10 years teaching people with disabilities how to scuba dive—something I didn’t even know was possible.
And then came the trip.
I watched my daughter do things I never knew to dream about.
Mary dove to 60 feet, swimming along a wall where the reef suddenly drops away into the deep ocean. She dove a shipwreck. She saw a shark and a stingray up close. She made
friends along the way, who have already recommended her for even more adventures—including waterskiing.
But the greatest thing she brought home wasn’t a certification.
It was possibility.
This experience reminded me that sometimes, when you have a child with a disability, you
can become so focused on what the world tells you they can’t do that you forget to imagine what they might.
Denver Adaptive Divers gave me a reason to imagine again.
The DAD crew has become a wonderful family for us, and this experience is worth more than I could ever explain.
I hope everyone gets the opportunity to scuba dive, because there is something powerful about learning to trust yourself and your abilities.
Under the water, disability doesn’t seem to matter quite as much.
You can breathe.
You can move.
You can go with the flow.
And sometimes, you discover that the future you thought was impossible was only a future you hadn’t imagined yet.“
- Ashlee White
(Mother of Mary White - age 12 Perinatal stroke / cerebral palsy)"
