Keeping families safe at the pool
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD The Kellogg Public Swimming Pool lifeguards. Pictured from left to right are Sean Cummings, Gavin Luna, Rylee Riekena, Jarret Hei, and Numa Poche.
photos by Josh McDonald Austin Myles and lifeguard Gaving Luna share a brief laugh after Luna recovered Myles from the bottom of the 12 foot section of the pool during the lifeguards inservice training.
Lifeguards at the Kellogg Pool work to get a drowning victim on their new backboard during an inservice simulation earlier this week.
Lifeguard Numa Poche makes a daring save off her lifeguard stand during the Kellogg Pool’s lifeguard inservice training.
The ability to save lives and keep people safe is something that is revered and associated with positions like doctors, police officers, firefighters, EMT’s, and military personnel.
People tend to forget about lifeguards.
The teens who take a week’s worth of intensive training each year to make sure that local families have a place to cool off during the hot summer months.
The lifeguards at the Kellogg Public Swimming Pool recently completed their monthly inservice training where they simulated rescuing a swimmer from various drowning situations.
Pool manager Lori Hendrix utilized her 19-year old son Austin Myles as her drowning victim and had him act out several scenarios that can occur during a routine day at the pool.
“The kids did awesome,” Hendrix said. “Some of the stuff that they do during this inservice training is different from what they did during training and they responded well.”
Assistant manager and veteran lifeguard Numa Poché thought the training went well also, and was pleased with the way her fellow lifeguards reacted to the situations despite the difference from their training.
“I am the only person we have who isn’t a first year lifeguard, so I feel very responsible for making sure that we all stay focused and able to adapt,” Poché said. “One of the things that was different from our certification training to our inservice training is our backboard. We were trained with an old wooden backboard that sinks when you put it in the water, and the one we use here in Kellogg is newer and it floats. The newer one is safer, but a lot more difficult to use when pulling someone out of the water. When getting a person out of the water, every second counts and I think we did a good job of adapting to it.”
Every possible simulation was thought up as the lifeguards were put to the test and they responded admirably, but these inservice days are not the only time the lifeguards in Kellogg get put to the test.
“I’ll use some kids that come in here during the day to fake a cramp or do something to get the lifeguard’s attention,” Hendrix said. “We gotta keep them sharp.”
The sharper the better when it comes to keeping people alive.