{"id":3647,"date":"2024-07-31T09:25:05","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T13:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=3647"},"modified":"2025-12-10T11:18:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:18:38","slug":"lifeguards-are-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2024\/07\/31\/lifeguards-are-essential\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifeguards Are Essential"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lifeguards have long been a summertime essential. Patrick Volk \u201926 has served as a lifeguard over the last two summers at the Las Trampas Pool in his hometown of Lafayette, California, filling a vital role in his community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The economics major and middle blocker on the Wabash volleyball team also lifeguards at the Class of 1950 Natatorium during the school year.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/07\/Volk_Patrick26_2023.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"266\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/07\/Volk_Patrick26_2023.jpg\" alt=\"photo of Patrick Volk '26\" class=\"wp-image-3648\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Patrick Volk \u201926, economics major, middle blocker, and lifeguard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a shortage of lifeguards nationwide. While those numbers have rebounded more recently, there still aren\u2019t enough guards to fill all available positions. When that happens, community pools close or \u201cswim at your own risk\u201d becomes more common at beaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether the responsibility is potentially saving a life or managing the pool covers and cleaning bathrooms, Volk understands his efforts are much-needed in order to create a friendly and welcoming environment at his pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLifeguards are pretty essential, obviously, to help save people when needed, but also for more basic things such as creating a good environment that gives people a sense of belonging at the pool,\u201d he said. \u201cLifeguards are essential to that success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Volk says one of the benefits to lifeguarding is getting to know the families and socializing with the kids when he\u2019s \u201cnot on the stand.\u201d That\u2019s what makes the job unique. And it comes with skills he\u2019s confident he can use in the future, no matter what he chooses to do when he graduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThose things make the job way more interesting and keep it from getting stale,\u201d Volk said. \u201cThe social skills, and how to respond in emergencies, are helpful ones I\u2019ve developed from lifeguarding, and I believe will translate well post-college.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lifeguards have long been a summertime essential. Patrick Volk \u201926 has served as a lifeguard over the last two summers at the Las Trampas Pool in his hometown of Lafayette, California, filling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/07\/Volk_Patrick26_2023.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3647"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3827,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647\/revisions\/3827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}