Local lifeguard offering emergency training
Audrey Pinsonneault-grenier is trying to help fill a gap in the region’s lifeguarding services. With qualified lifeguards being hired on in droves by local water parks and largescale attractions, the local lifeguard trainer says that smaller-scale operations and building pools are sometimes left scrambling trying to find someone to watch over their swimmers, resulting in the risk of being shut down by the Régie du Bâtiment du Québec (RBQ).
As a form of stop-gap solution, while offering full lifeguard training Pinsonneault-grenier also runs regular “Aquatic Emergency Care” courses. Once completed, this course certifies swimmers as young as 14 as having the skills necessary to serve as a lifeguard for a swimming pool of less than 100 square metres with no more than ten swimmers in it.
“It is the only certification
recognized by the Régie du Bâtiment du Québec other than the full lifeguard course,” the trainer said.
According to Pinsonneault-grenier, the 20-hour course is one part of the full lifeguard certification and involves a 16 hour first-aid training coupled with four hours in the water. Those taking the course need to be able to do a front flip in the water, tread water for one minute, and complete two laps of the pool.
“It’s a good way to know if (lifeguarding) is something you want to do,” the trainer said, calling it a stepping stone to full lifeguard training while also pointing out the service the training provides to hotels and campsites that lack properly trained staff.
More information on the courses is available in French at www.aquasecours.com, although Pinsonneault-grenier said that she can also be contacted directly at 819-919-7006.
“People only come to me if they know the option exists,” she said, pointing out that the Aquatic Emergency Care course is still mostly unknown in the Townships, despite the need. So far this year, she said, she has been able to fill ten positions that would otherwise have been vacant at local pools.
In the article, ‘The Grace Villagers have arrived’, published on Monday, July 10 the name of Grace Village Pavilion Director of Care, Sandra Klinck, was misspelled in the article.
The Record regrets the error and any confusion it may have caused.