March 28th was like any other certification day until it wasn’t. On this particular day Paula’s training would come into play and because of that an accident was avoided. Paula had just completed her NAUI Divemaster training and had earned her certification the week before while in California when she was tasked with helping out with the training of some new divers. While paying attention to the surface of the water near where the students were training Paula noticed one of the students surface and begin to struggle. Although the student was able to stay afloat by finning she did not inflate her BCD as she was trained to do or drop her weights and she appeared to be in panic mode. Her state of mind was confirmed when she failed to inflate her BCD even though she was being instructed to do so and she was clearly beginning to tire of finning to stay afloat. Without hesitation Paula jumped in the water and swam to the struggling diver and inflated her BCD for her. Paula took it a step further by talking with the diver to help reduce her stress level. Without hesitation Paula put training into action and saved a fellow diver that was very clearly not capable of saving her self. Because of her actions Paula was awarded a Life Saving Award on April 22, 2015.