[music] [Announcer]
Quality Recreation that's
affordable, inviting all to come out and play Welcome
to Chicago at Play. [music] [Kiki Hernandez]
First and foremost, your
job is surveillance. Your job is to watch the water. Be it at the lakefront,
be it at a pool. [music] [Eric Fischer]
Today at Ridge Park we're here
training potential lifeguards or former lifeguards to
just sharpen their skills. [music] [Kiki Hernandez]
We offer a waterfront
lifeguarding certification through the American Red Cross. And we actually go a
total of 2 and half weeks, 40 hours required class time. [Luke]
As a kid I swam with CPD and
I've seen all the lifeguards up there, and I wanted
to be like them. So now I'm starting all the
prerequisites and everything and I want to be a lifeguard. [Kiki Hernandez]
This is a disstressed
swimmer who calls out for help close to the
wall, you reach and assist. [Announcer]
Through the end of April,
all ages can sign up and come to classes to get certified as a Chicago Park
District Lifeguard. [Eric Fischer]
It's going to give the
skills that we are looking for to hire you as a lifeguard. We'd like you to demonstrate
that you have a proficiency with swimming, comfortability,
we'd like to see that you are safe in the
water before you have to rescue someone. It's one of the things we
teach in the classes as well. [Kiki Hernandez]
We want lifeguards who
are going to be vigilant, and enjoy being either outdoors
or indoors servicing the public, and we want lifeguards who are
going to take this job seriously and realize that hey we are
protecting the public here in our own way. [Julia]
Well, A lot of my friends do
it as well and it's really fun, it's a lot of fun to work
at the beaches and stuff. And then also I have a
lot of time in the summer, and this would be a great time
to spend it near what I love, the water, and helping
people out. [Announcer]
The Chicago Park District fills over 800 lifeguard
positions in the summer. Each candidate needs
to go through a series of pre-requisites and
classes to be certified and show they are ready
to serve the public. [Kiki Hernandez]
The prerequisite today is a 550
yard swim, so that's 22 laps of the pool, and they'll have
to perform eight of those laps in the front crawl
style, or freestyle. [Luke]
It wasn't timed, but you had to make sure you finished
everything, no stopping. And then after that we have
to go under water and dive for a brick, and then
after that we have to tread water for two minutes. [Kiki Hernandez]Ready, go! Hands in your armpits. [music] [Eric Fischer]
People that might need extra
work can take the class early and then come back to the
pool and keep working. We run four tests throughout
the summer starting in April, and all the way through May. [Kiki Hernandez]
It's hard for some, easy
for others, we try to reach out to anybody who can swim
and has the ability to swim. They don't have to be perfect
swimmers, they don't have to be on swim teams or
anything like that. But if they can swim, it's definitely an
opportunity for them. [Kiki Hernandez]Make
sure if you're struggling or don't understand or you
need the extra practice, you come talk to us. And we will work with you. [Announcer]
To learn more about the
lifeguard certification and hiring process,
visit our website at chicagoparkdistrict.com. [Eric Fischer]
The fact that you're
dealing with safety. it just makes you
concentrate on dealing with the public in
a correct manner. And we see a lot of lifeguards
transition to other positions, civil service jobs-police,
fire, EMT's-because of the work they're doing
as lifeguards to start with. We're looking for the
young teens, adults, all the way to seniors. We've hired new lifeguards
every year, some of them in their 50's and 60's. There's no limitations. [Whistle Blows] [Kiki Hernandez]
We are lifeguards first and
foremost, and we are here for safety and prevention
of accidents. [music]
