Heeding the call: Greater Boston lifeguards train to keep summer safe and fun

The national lifeguard shortage was far from the minds of the hundred or so experienced or novice lifesavers who came from all around Greater Boston to participate in this year’s Golden Guard training event at the Waltham YMCA.

Guards from the 13 branches of the Greater Boston YMCA descended on the Waltham Y Saturday to take part in the multi-stage, five-hour event that ran through four different “stations,” as two lifeguards the Herald spoke with described them, that ran through the causes and effects of drowning, lifesaving techniques, first aid, and a refresher course on CPR, employing oxygen and other medical skills.

“We covered a lot of ground today,” Giulia Salvucci, who has nearly six years of part-time lifeguarding and swim instruction experience at the host Y, told the Herald. “I feel like everyone showed up and showed out considering how long of an event it is and I also think everyone brought very positive energy.”

Salvucci is studying biology and education at UMass Amherst with a goal of becoming a teacher — and possibly even continuing as a swimming coach at her future school.

“I would 100% recommend this job to everyone,” she said, adding that the job is “very rewarding.” “It’s empowering knowing that you can respond to these emergency situations.”

Dan Grattan, a full-time lifeguard at the North Suburban Y in Woburn, also expressed appreciation for the community that develops around the training-heavy job.

“Lifeguarding in general has always been a super fun job and it’s helped me a lot with my learning disabilities,” he said. “It’s helped me to understand social cues better and talk with people better.”

Shortage

The YMCA of Greater Boston announced that it’s responding to “a shortage of certified lifeguards in Massachusetts” by increasing summer pay to $21 per hour for staff 18 years or older and offering free training. It will also host 1,000 classes where lifeguards will teach young people to swim.

Likewise, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation is also recruiting. The agency offers $22 to $27 an hour for qualified candidates, who can earn up to $1,250 in bonuses if they apply early and stay through the summer. And the season is longer than ever, with the state on Saturday announcing it was opening many pools earlier than scheduled to help people beat the record heat.

According to the American Lifeguard Association, a third of the nation’s 309,000 public swimming pools were either closed or only occasionally open due to a shortage in trained lifeguards last year, with a possibility the situation this year could be “as bad as last year or worse.”

The Association cited the COVID-19 pandemic as at least partly to blame for the shortage, with lockdowns putting a big damper on the 300,000 yearly candidates.

That’s how Grattan sees it, too. He’ll have five years under his belt in the role next month and has seen some major staffing swings in that time.

“What happened is that Ys across Greater Boston, staffing fell pretty short,” Grattan said of when COVID hit the U.S. “hard” in 2020.

The numbers took a while to come back, he said. His Y had only three part-time lifeguards in 2022, but now boasts “upwards of 20 lifeguards,” though most are still students working only the summer season between high school or college semesters.

Safety

Drowning deaths are on the rise in the U.S., with an average more than 4,500 fatalities in the years of 2020 through 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s 500 more per year than in 2019.

The statistics are especially grim for the oldest and youngest among us. Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1–4, with 28% more of them dying in 2020–2020, the year’s of the agency’s most recent study, than in 2019. Adults 65 years or older weren’t far behind with a 19% spike over the same period.

The agency is strongly promoting swimming lessons for all ages to reverse the trend. According to the CDC, 55% of adults have never taken a swimming lesson and 40 million of them do not know how to swim at all — with the statistics even worse for black and Hispanic adults.

The experienced lifeguards at the Waltham event have some basic advice that can keep you or your loved ones alive:

“I would hope that people are frequenting beaches and pools that are staffed with lifeguards,” Salvucci said, adding later that “If you’re bringing your kids to the beach, I recommend supervising them the whole time.”

Gratten, who said he saved the life of a young girl taking her first swimming lesson a couple years ago, said to “Never swim alone. Be in a group of people, regardless if it’s your friends or family, especially in an area where there is no active lifeguard present.”

And the “primary thing,” Salvucci said, is “that you’re fully attentive.”