Swimming is a rock-bottom, bare-bones qualification for saving people's lives in water.
Or at least it used to be anyway:
Thanks to COVID and budget cuts (that were thanks to COVID), we didn't have public pools at all in 2020. Philadelphia opened some of its city pools in 2021 but had problems recruiting lifeguards. And the city encountered similar issues last year.
So for the 2023 pool season in Philadelphia, the city has started recruiting early. And if you can't swim, you can still apply. That's right. According to representatives of the city's Parks & Recreation Department I spoke with, the city is actively recruiting lifeguard candidates who would sink like a stone if you threw them in the deep end today.
I cannot stress again how important it is to be able to swim if you are a lifeguard.
I suppose it's fair to point out that the city is willing to train potential lifeguards to actually have the ability to guard lives.
The city will provide free swimming lessons at Lincoln High School in Mayfair to anybody who doesn't know how to swim, assuming they are committed to testing into the lifeguard program this summer.
How safe would you feel swimming at a Philly public pool knowing that your lifeguard just learned how to tread water three weeks before?
