Cindy Caldwell is president of Harry’s Dive Shop and Metairie Diving School as well as a scuba instructor, mother, and wife. Her hobbies include reading, gardening, photography, and editing underwater photos and videos. Cindy’s favorite movie is The Little Mermaid, her music choices are Country and New Age and her favorite marine creature is the Mimic Octopus. Cindy’s claim to fame is that she was a professional unicyclist in Mardi Gras Parades.

When she was ten years old, Cindy wanted to be a Ballerina. Being Harry’s daughter, Cindy grew up with diving as a daily activity. If she has to pick only one, her best diving experience was swimming with hundreds of Eagle and Cownose Rays in the Galapagos Islands. The serenity of being underwater and seeing the smiling faces of new divers upon surfacing is what Cindy gets most out of diving.

Cindy Caldwell is hard to describe but let’s use a few words such as dedicated, knowledgeable, caring, energetic, sincere, owner and most of all, loving mother and wife. Now let’s touch on each of these qualities.

Dedicated: Cindy is truly a person dedicated to the sport of scuba diving. Her dedication has helped her to be recognized as very influential in promoting the sport. Her dedication is not restricted to the sport but is also for the students that learn to dive through Harry’s Dive Shop. Cindy is always willing to help friends with events, students needing assistance with skills, participation in events promoting diving and encouraging students to further their diving education.

Knowledgeable: I would guess that Cindy was born with fins on her feet and possibly a dive mask on her face. She grew up in a diving environment and was the only child who followed in her father’s footstep. I really believe she has memorized all the teaching manuals because regardless of the class, she can lecture and you would believe she was reading from the book. She was teaching before a lot of modern day technology for scuba diving was ever discovered. Despite years of experience, Cindy continues to learn as scuba diving continues to improve from her students, the many manufacturers and various certifying agencies.

Caring: Cindy cares for the sport, the people in the sport and those who contribute to the sport. She stresses the need to preserve our underwater environment for future generations. The need for divers to expand their education and skills to enable them to be better divers and aware of their underwater environment is her mantra.

Cindy has tropical birds at the office {who can be noisy at times} that are like family. I can say one of the most caring incidents I had the pleasure in assisting with was when a group of boy scouts working on the Eagle Badge designation lost their leader and were in imminent danger of not being able to complete their swimming merit badge. Cindy volunteered her time, classroom and pool to assist these scouts in earning their badge and become Eagle Scouts. This was done with no monetary benefit to her, just the warm feeling one gets from knowing they have helped others in need.

Energetic: Anyone who knows Cindy knows that she never stops. She can be doing business, paying bills, helping customers, teaching a class, planning trips — and this is all in one day. Her energy is driven by the love of what she does and the desire to assist others. The only time I have seen her unwind is on the way to the check out dives when she tries to read but eventually falls asleep.

Sincere: Cindy does what she does not driven solely from a profit motivation but from a love for the sport and the desire to make sure she affords her customers the best training she can give. How many of us can say that we do what we love and get paid for doing it? She always has her students and future divers’ best interests and safety as her prime motivating factor.

Owner: Having to buy her siblings interests out, Cindy did not want her father’s legacy to disappear. She wanted to make sure that the store would continue to function as Harry had envisioned. She challenges her employees to successfully manage the shop and gain experience. She tries to create interest in scuba diving with Try Scuba, Scuba Rangers, scuba diver training and additional nights to come to the pool and learn about and try out various equipment. She also provides non-diving events.

Loving Mother and Wife: Everyone should be familiar with the medical problems that Chelsea, her daughter and only child, has and the wait for two lungs and a heart but at no time do you hear Cindy complain or even ask for sympathy. One can only imagine the physical and mental stress she must be under but she never lets it get the best of her. After meeting Chelsea you can see how much she is like her mother, never complaining and always positive. Then there is Mel, her husband, who stands by her and supports her through all of this. Without him, surely Cindy would not be the complete person she is.

Mix all of this in a bowl, add a bit of water, and voila!, you get Cindy. — Ray