DeKALB | Jim Elliott did not attend NIU to be a physical therapist, or even a professional diver. He majored in journalism.

Elliott is now the president of his foundation Diveheart which uses adaptive diving to help people with disabilities.

Elliott was recruited from the advertising department at the Northern Star directly into the Chicago Tribune in 1979.

“Its really funny because I actually took a pay cut going from the Northern Star to the Tribune,” Elliott said.

Jim later moved to WGN radio and CLTV in Chicago, which are both owned by the Tribune company.

He did not leave the Tribune until his children were grown and he felt he needed to give back.

Elliott had been diving since his early college years and was inspired by a story he remembered from his daughter, Erin’s, childhood.

“Erin would be made fun of in school for being blind,” Elliott said. “One day, she decided to quit being blind and refused to learn braille.”

To help Erin gain self confidence, Elliott enlisted her in a program that taught blind children to downhill ski.

“She stopped being Erin the blind girl and became Erin the skier,” Elliott said. “She wasn’t made fun of anymore.”

Elliot’s organization helps people in similar situations gain self-esteem by learning a unique skill. The feeling of being nearly weightless is helpful to those who are in wheelchairs, missing limbs or have other ailments, Elliott said.

Diveheart was founded in 2001.

“Diving started out for me as just another skill I thought would be good to know as a journalist, but it grew into so much more,” Elliott said.

Treating people with disabilities creates opportunities for those people that they never knew were there, Elliott said.

“There are unexplored careers for people with disabilities who excel at diving,” Elliott said. “Most people don’t think about what needs to be done underwater.”

Elliott said there were master divers working in the gulf stream to install turbines which produce a green source of power. The underwater turbines work much like the wind turbines all around Illinois, except the gulf stream is constant, where as the wind is not.

Diveheart was founded in Downers Grove, but it has footholds around the world.

“I just recently returned from Israel where they were excited to do research on barometric therapy,” Elliott said. “They just want a partner in the U.S. to converse with.”

When people come to the program and worry about if they will be able to dive well Elliot encourages them.

“I just tell them to focus on what they can do,” Elliott said.