By Kyle Kondor
“No running on the diving board!” 17-year-old Lawrenceville Prep student Nina Kalkus shouts at children as she goes about her day as a lifeguard at the Willows Swim Club on Willow Road in Lawrence.
This is one rule of many that Kalkus and the other lifeguards at Willows have to enforce with the young club members to ensure safety in and around the 25-by-75 foot pool.
You’ll rarely see more than one lifeguard on duty because the club’s population is only made up of 55 families, amounting to just about 250 club members. Weekday pool hours at Willow are generally from noon to 7 p.m., during which one lifeguard works all seven hours. On weekends the pool club is open from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and that shift is split between two lifeguards with an overlap in the middle from 3-4, generally the busiest hour of the day.
Kalkus took her American Red Cross lifeguard training course at Lawrenceville Prep. In order to earn her certification, she was required to pass a written test as well as a practical test in the water.
“We learned a lot about how to enter the water, how to recognize when someone’s in danger, and how to remove someone from the water without injuring them even more,” Kalkus said. “We also learned a lot of basic first aid things like how to do CPR and use a defibrillator.”
Kalkus and her mother have been a part of the 49-year-old pool club since she was two-years-old, and neither of them have ever witnessed any poolside emergencies.
“Thankfully I haven’t had to deal with any emergencies so far,” said Kalkus, who’s about to wrap up her first summer as a certified lifeguard. “For the most part my job is just to keep everyone safe so there aren’t any emergencies.”
“They may have to deal with a scrape here and there but I’m very happy to say that we haven’t had any major incidents at the Willows pool for quite a long time and I hope to keep it that way,” swim club board member Stephen Carey said.
He also said that all children between the ages of seven and 14-years-old are required to take a deep end test where a child is to tread water for one minute and swim to one end of the pool and back without stopping.
“If there’s a child under seven at our pool than we dictate that the parent has to be with the child,” Carey said.
Lifeguards are in charge of evaluating those children taking the deep end test. This is one job amongst many that Willows Swim Club lifeguards have throughout their workday. Of course they are to unlock and lock the gates when opening and closing, as well as making sure there was no damage done from any storms that might have occurred the night before. They must also to skim the pool, clean the pool, and fill the pool with water if it’s running low. Once that is done, they must check the water temperature, as well as the PH level and chlorine level of the water. They are required to record all of this information every two hours throughout the day in a daily log.
One thing that is much different about the job of a Willows lifeguard is that they are instructed to check the oxidation reductional potential value of the water as well, because Willows this year switched over to using a saltwater chlorination system.
“We use this to gauge healthiness of the pool,” Carey said. “Our pool no longer has that chlorine smell and the water doesn’t burn your eyes.”
The lifeguards can check the club’s new computer system to see if the saltwater chlorination is running smoothly.
Carey expects each of his seven lifeguards to know how to complete these daily tasks. He also expects them to be interactive with club members and create relationships with the children.
“We’re trying to encourage our children to be good citizens and actually grow up to be lifeguards and things of that nature,” Carey said. “The lifeguards don’t need a strong personality but if they talk to the kids and relate to the kids, that’s big for us.”
Kalkus says that is her favorite part of the job.
“I enjoy what I do because it’s fun to interact with the kids and watch them,” Kalkus said. “Hopefully this is something I can continue to do next summer.”
Nina Kalkus keeps an eye on swimmers at Willows Swim Club in July 2014. (Photo by Kyle Kondor.),
