As kids spend summer splashing about NoVA’s outdoor pools and water parks, efforts are underway to make sure there are enough lifeguards.
Local jurisdictions have a lot of slots for outdoor lifeguards to fill, and they’ve been combating a national shortage for the last few years. The postings for those jobs started back in January and February, and high school and college students are expected to take most of those 800 positions.
“The COVID closures and the ripple effect of many lifeguards losing their certifications shrunk the applicant pool,” says Gary James, manager of the Vint Hill Community Center and Larry Weeks Pools in Fauquier County, adding that the hiring difficulty has started to wane.
Fauquier needed to hire about 10 lifeguards for its one outdoor pool. Alexandria required roughly 20 more for three outdoor pools. Loudoun and Stafford counties each sought about 50. NOVA Parks needed 300 for its five water parks. Fairfax and Prince William counties required 160 and 200 lifeguards, respectively. “It was a big need for us,” says Marc Barton, aquatics section manager for the Fairfax County Park Authority.
Fairfax County’s 30 lifeguard instructors train the newbies or recertify returning lifeguards. “It’s about 30 hours of training that we do over usually two weekends to get them trained up in what we call rescue-ready. It’s a fairly monumental task to bring all those people on,” Barton says. “They are trained to identify a guest in distress, identify the different stages of drowning. We want to catch them early. We want to catch them in the first 10 seconds … and then rescue them in 20. We call that the 10/20 standard. And you know, as long as you meet that standard, you almost have 100 percent success rate.”
Fairfax and Prince William counties and NOVA Parks use the professional lifeguard standards of Ellis & Associates for training, while other jurisdictions follow American Red Cross requirements.
Lindsay Burneson, division chief of Alexandria’s Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities, says new lifeguards there are paired with veteran guards until they’re ready to be on their own.
To attract lifeguards, Alexandria and Loudoun offer free certification classes. Michael Skarke, aquatics manager for Loudoun County Parks, Recreation and Community Services, says the new process lets applicants get hired before they are certified. “This has helped limit the time it takes for a new hire to be trained and staff their positions once they have become certified,” he says.
The minimum age for most NoVA lifeguards is 15, except in Fauquier where it is 16. They make between $12 and $17.76 an hour. “We do struggle with the early school schedule as many lifeguards and staff go back to school early in the month of August,” says James.
A hiring bump also happens when college students go back to school and when guards are needed at indoor pools.
Interestingly, those young lifeguards watching over the pools often use the positions as training for future careers, as “the folks who run towards the danger,” Barton says, like fire and rescue. “It’s a great career for folks who do want to go into the medical field.”
NoVA Job Sites
- Alexandria
- Arlington County
- Fairfax County
- Fairfax County Park Authority
- Fauquier County
- Loudoun County
- NOVA Parks
- Stafford County
Feature image of lifeguards courtesy Prince William County Parks & Recreation
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