Becoming a Lifeguard - Welcome to our World

by Sandy Kellogg

Aquatic Operations Supervisor, Mount Vernon RECenter

Fairfax County Park Authority

VRPS Aquatics Resource Group 2016 Chair
VRPS 2016 Awards Co-Chair

It’s hiring season in the pool world!  This time of year there is a fresh crop of young, enthusiastic lifeguards entering the world of aquatics, ready to save lives and make money doing it.  Some start as brand new employees, learning how to get to work on time and be responsible.  Others come back from their first year of college, ready to earn money to go back in the fall.  All are hoping for a fun, rewarding summer without too much drama.

Interviewing new staff can be very entertaining.  Applicants that couldn’t find a pen and thought a mostly illegible pencil would work are weeded out.  All are swim tested to eliminate candidates that can’t actually swim. Finally we all find ourselves across a table from a slightly nervous young person.  Desperate to sound enthusiastic and hirable most potential lifeguards answer this question the same way.  When asked “Why do you want to be a lifeguard?”  The answer is always two parts; “I like being around the water, and I love kids”.

Instead of moving into the specifics of training and hiring I really want to stop the process right there, and give this young person a hint at the reality of the job they are hoping to get.  Not only will they spend the summer being stressed and nervous at work, they will probably never again relax by a body of water.  They will forever be vigilant and watchful, sometimes without even knowing why.  On a cruise ship last Christmas I found myself scanning the 6 by 8 foot pool, a habit reinforced when I fished out a three year old whose family was busy at the bar.  Going to the beach will never be relaxing and fun, the waves, tides and murkiness make the possibility of someone slipping under and disappearing all too real.  And children?  They go from adorable little things splashing gleefully to tiny monsters desperately trying to drown, wandering into areas they cannot be while their parents binge watch something from the sidelines.  Diving into shallow water, breath holding competitions and our ever present call of “Walk!” will be what lifeguards remember from their summer job.

And yet, they will hopefully spend the summer knowing they made a difference, that the children were safer because they were there, that every reaching assist they did or lifejacket they fitted on a child saved a life.  Children will always be safer around them, they will always remember how quickly and quietly things can go badly at a pool.  Infant CPR will be the same whether they are on duty or a parent five years later.  Maybe that’s the message that I should make sure they get, along with welcome to the team.

Notes from the Lifeguard Chair

by Sandy Kellogg

Aquatic Operations Supervisor, Mount Vernon RECenter

Fairfax County Park Authority

VRPS Aquatics Resource Group 2016 Chair

VRPS 2016 Awards Co-Chair

Funny how things look different angles. I spent three years every weekday morning eight feet above a pool deck, watching early patrons swimming back and forth. By midmorning they would switch to older women doing water aerobics, the music taking me back to things my father played on Saturday mornings while Mom was getting groceries. Lunchtime saw the beginning of private lessons, swim instructors coaxing small children into the water while moms or nannies sat nearby. By one-thirty the pool had quieted down again, only a few dedicated retirees with their routines, and it was time for me to go home.

The years I spent on chair were followed by years of management; hiring, training and staffing an aquatic facility. Every once in a while I end up back up there - some crisis with a staff member, unexpected group, or maybe just to reward a lifeguard with an early lunch. When I do, I remember why it is both the hardest and the most boring job we could ever hope to have. At any given second, there is a chance of catastrophe. A guard cannot be ready for disaster without being aware of every pause a swimmer takes, every time a child wanders deeper than they have been before, or a patron that just doesn’t seem like them-self that day. And yet every morning, every shift, every sit, day after day, very little happens.

Mount Vernon RECenter, Fairfax County Park Authority

I have seen a lot of crazy things from up there. After my time as a lifeguard I have taught, demonstrated and explained to a lot of lifeguards what we do and more importantly why we do it. I hope that every minute of every day that my staff is looking at our facility from that angle they remember why they are there, and why they matter.

Great Things are Happening in ARG

by Nancy Turnage, VRPS Central Office

ARG.  Aquatics Resource Group.

In my two years at VRPS, my impression is that ARG is an energetic, active, and PROactive entity.  They are always two steps ahead of me - whether managing their web page, looking to implement their own web-based calendar, formulating workshop ideas, and always, always, reaching out and looking to grow.  Their volume of correspondence is a welcome addition to my inbox.  So, to sum, great things are happening in ARG.

·         The Aquatics Resource Group (ARG) is listening to its constituency… In an effort to benchmark and learn from each other, we are beginning to ask aquatic peers specific questions with regards to their operation, programs and staffing.  We are starting with Aquatic Fitness / Water Exercise staff.  If you would like to participate, please complete and submit our questionnaire and be a part of our results pool (no pun intended).  If there is an area you would like to have benchmarked contact the ARG!

Click HERE to go to the ARG Questionnaire.