Lifeguarding course kicks off fall swim season

Wrangell’s Parks and Rec hosted an American Red Cross certified lifeguard course over the weekend as part of its efforts to improve its

pool-related programming.

Currently there are around ten people able to lifeguard locally, but in recent months

the department has been unable to train any more themselves. The departure of several staff

members this year meant there were no more employees

certified to be instructors.

Parks director Kate Thomas explained she just received her certification to instruct this week, taking a two-day course in Irvine, Calif. New

coordinator Bridget Davidson will also get hers in the near future, after she returns from maternity leave.

To teach the course, Wrangell brought over Judy Forgey, a certified swimming instructor recently retired from Petersburg’s Parks Department. Three participants took the course and will use the skills with their jobs for the school and city.

The three-day lifeguarding course teaches participants how to prevent, recognize

and respond to emergencies in the water. Students also

learn to provide care for

breathing and heart-related emergencies, injuries and sudden illnesses until emergency personnel can take over. In addition, participants have to demonstrate an ability to perform certain tasks while in the water.

“It’s also a nice certification to have your first aid, AED, CPR it includes all of those pieces,” Davidson explained. Some of the skills learned in the course are applicable in situations outside of the gym as well, from household

emergencies to those on the job site.

Now certified, Thomas said she would like to hold more courses in future and is working to begin a program through the University of Alaska Southeast’s high school programming as well.

“It’s an important skill

when you’re living on the water,” agreed Bruce McQueen, who coaches for Wrangell’s youth and adult swim groups.

For a community where much of its work and recreation takes place on or near the water, one of the program’s primary benefits is learning to be a

confident swimmer. From an economic standpoint,

lifeguarding also gives older students the opportunity to work during the summer, while also getting young people involved in the community. McQueen explained the development of Swim Club and the Wrangell Island Masters Swimming over the past few years is partly a response to a decade and a half of no similar program.

“It all kind of ties together into making a swim culture,” he said. “Swimming I think is one of the few sports you can pursue your entire life.”

Swimming isn’t just

a summer thing, either. With October being Breast

Cancer Awareness Month, McQueen said both Wrangell’s youth and adult swim groups will participate in a virtual meet called the “Crazy Big Swim” on Oct. 3.

The nationwide event will raise money for cancer awareness and research, and participants are encouraged to try an individual event or organize a group for a relay. Times will be compared nationally for the related swims taking place between Labor Day and Columbus Day.

For more information, contact Parks and Rec at 874-2444 or McQueen at 874-2882.