North Myrtle Beach Times Serving our Community and the Grand Strand for over 50 years
By John Smithson
The second summer session of the NMB Ocean Rescue’s Junior Lifeguard Program concluded last Saturday with games and exercises that highlighted the skills and knowledge that participants learned in their second summer camp.
The program is offered twice during the summer months by the city’s ocean rescue personnel, one camp in June and another in July. May Wingard, beach patrol officer and program coordinator for the program, explained what the program is about prior to last Tuesday’s camp activities on the beach near Main Street.
“We have 65 kids in each camp in two age groups. The Wahoos are 9-12 years old and the Makos group are ages 13-15. The purpose of the program is to get kids interested in being lifeguards. They not only learn lifeguarding skills but also safety skills in general. We teach them how to be safe on the beach and how to spot an emergency appropriately and deal with it safely.”
Wingard stated that each age group is approached differently. “The Makos, the older group, tend to be challenged more than the younger Wahoos, who we tend to be sillier with. That allows each group to feel like they are in their element when they are at the beach.”
“Besides warming up and exercises we also do some basic rescue skills. They learn how to help swimmers in distress in the water while keeping themselves safe. We also do some games that are water based. We do about half and half fun activities and learning.”
“We have about 50% of these junior lifeguards who are new, so 65 of the participants want to come back and do the program, 65 are new and learned about the program and rushed to sign up. The program sells out every year. Our first camp probably sold out before Memorial Day. People are excited about the camp and want to get their kids registered as soon as they can.”
Wingard spoke about the public attention the program receives. “Our program is vitally important. It is the only program like it in the area. Nationally, junior lifeguard programs are well established, especially in New Jersey, California and Florida. They are not as common in South Carolina. Since we are the only agency offering the Junior Lifeguard, we have kids come from Georgetown or Shallotte every morning, kids motivated to drive that far for this.”
The junior lifeguards also can sign up for a “shadow” program. Shadow hours are on Saturdays from 9:30 to 11:30. “Kids signed up by parents come to our warehouse in the morning and are assigned a lifeguard tower. The kids can sit with the lifeguard and learn and experience firsthand what they do and their perspective. Even though the junior lifeguards are not allowed to get involved with any rescue, they can follow the lifeguard around as they perform their other duties, and safely observe from a distance, hopefully getting more interested in becoming a lifeguard.”
“A good number of junior lifeguards become lifeguards. Last year we had 10% of our staff that were former junior lifeguards. Although we train lifeguards with no experience, those with junior lifeguard experience have a bit more knowledge and extra comfort with the water that gives them a leg up in training,” Wingard said.
Beach Patrol Manager Monty Reed also teaches the CPR portion of the Junior Lifeguard program. I met up with him at the J. Bryan Floyd Community Center for CPR training. He was working with the younger group that day. “I teach about 30 kids in the CPR class and we teach adult CPR. The Junior Lifeguard program is wildly successful here and I credit Officer Wingard for the work she has done on the program as well as the other lifeguards that help her.”
“We do hire local kids from this program. We have kids from all over the world, but to be able to hire local kids and instill in them a passion for lifesaving, that is a tremendous benefit to our community,” Reed said.
“The only day the campers are in the classroom is for CPR. The meat of the training is in the ocean, learning about rip currents, long shore currents, maritime hazards and rescues. We teach them just about everything about lifeguarding up to a point. We want them to learn life skills and have fun,” Reed concluded.
Last Saturday about half of the participants in the two summer Junior Lifeguard camps gathered on the beach for the final games. Wingard stated that there would be relays, a game called beach flags and other activities. Winners in the beach flags game get to hit an instructor with a pie. When the day was over everyone had fun, some watermelon and a great idea of what lifeguarding was all about.
Monty Reed walks around a group of younger Junior Lifeguards who are practicing adult CPR as part of the classroom part of the recent Junior Lifeguard summer program. Reed was the instructor for the class and is the city’s Beach Patrol Manager.
