Y gives lifeguards a refresher course
Adds incentives to head off shortage at pools
WALTHAM — As summer ramps up, the YMCA of Greater Boston has two goals: increase the number of lifeguards in the area and strengthen life-saving skills of those already certified.
To achieve the second of those goals, all 13 YMCA branches were closed Saturday so guards could undergo training and practice pool safety by participating in the Y’s annual Swimposium. More than 200 YMCA lifeguards joined in the Swimposium, which equips youth and first-time lifeguards with skills needed to ensure safe swimming across Greater Boston.
The YMCA has been forced to take strides in efforts to recruit and retain lifeguards, as have other agencies with pools, amid a national shortage that has in recent years kept local pools understaffed and sometimes closed.
To combat the shortage, the YMCA began a 10-week incentive program for guards over the age of 18. Now in its third year, the program offers wages competitive to pools in Greater Boston, said Jeremy Stiles, senior association director of aquatics for the YMCA at the Waltham branch during the Swimposium.
“We want the staff to know that we believe in them, and we’re investing into them and we get good retention at the end of the summer,” he said.
City- and state-run programs are also offering bonuses for hiring and retention, the Globe reported last month.
Kristina McNaughton, 21, is in her fifth year lifeguarding at the YMCA’s Roxbury branch. A competitive swimmer while growing up, she found transitioning to lifeguarding to be natural. But she sees other new guards struggle at the physical demands of the job, she said.
“It does take a lot,” McNaughton said. “And so at first, people cannot really see the intensity in it until they start to do the training. So I feel like that’s kind of where the shortage comes in.”
The incentive program has benefits, though, she said.
“It does give more of an incentive to stay and it also gives people on the outside who aren’t guards an incentive to be like maybe I should try out for this,” McNaughton said.
The YMCA also strives to remove economic barriers to lifeguard certification by hosting roughly 1,000 free certification classes throughout the summer, Stiles said.
“We know very well the staff we certify might not work for us,” Stiles said, “But with over 3,600 children drowning in the US under the age of 14 every year, we believe that it’s our work to certify everybody so that all of the pools can be safe.”
Recent summers have brought a series of deaths in Massachusetts’ waters, including 18 drownings statewide just in May 2021.
While guards who take part in the Swimposium have already been certified, such events help them practice and master life-saving skills. On Saturday, participants rotated among four stations focused on pool rescue, safety prevention, team building, and CPR and first aid intervention.
“If you don’t use it, you lose it,” Stiles said of the training.
Jeff Davis, 63, who started as a lifeguard a year and a half ago and works at the Waltham branch, said he sees the profound impact the competitive wages have on the lives of his teen colleagues.
“They work 40 hours a week during the summer, and they need that money to save up for college and so forth,” Davis said. “So while the pay is obviously good for me, it’s so much more important for them.”