George S's Senior Project Blog
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Project Title: Making a Splash with Safety BASIS Advisor: Will Slattery Internship Location: YMCA of Southern Arizona (Ott, Lighthouse, Lohse, and Northwest locations) Onsite Mentor: Valerie Culver-Gabrysiak |
Project Abstract
Pool safety always seems to be a very small topic in our daily lives. When people go to a pool, the first thing they see is a lifeguard on a stand, but they don’t know what it took to get that guard there. A whole boatload of training, maintenance, and even chemistry allows that pool to operate. This project aims to bring all these to the public allowing people to get a general grasp of what it means to keep a pool safe.
Thank you everyone!
These past 11 weeks have been a journey of a lifetime. My pool knowledge has expanded 200 laps! I have to say thank you so much Miss Val! After realizing that my project should not be about learning the ropes of keeping a pool safe as much as it should be about teaching the public... Read More
Week 9: Water Safety and Swim Lessons
"Welcome back to another water safety lesson!" When people sign their kids up for swim lessons, they believe that their kids will go straight into learning how to swim front crawl, but it is quite the opposite. In the YMCA curriculum, children are taught water safety before they are taught swim lessons. People always... Read More
Week 10: The Final Piece
This is it. The last week. This week has been a long week of preparation to make my final product. Now that I have all the necessary materials, I can finally make the video. The video to teach the world about how pools run and how they keep their safety. Most of my research... Read More
Pascha Break!
Hey everyone! Sorry for the late notice, but I will be out this week in preparation for Pascha (Easter). As I did not go on spring break like everyone else, now it is my turn. Today I was preparing and marinating all the chicken and pork chops for my church's picnic on Sunday. I will... Read More
Week 8: The Crossover is Complete
With the week complete, all lifeguards have been recertified and crossed over to v7. We started the second day of class by hopping straight into the water for some conscious shallow water victim rescues and unconscious victim rescues floating in deep water. Afterwards we proceeded to go over unconscious rescues in shallow water with... Read More
Week 7: Time for Version 7
With the advancements of science and new studies being conducted on how to save live more efficiently, the methods used advance as well. After several years, the YMCA has come out with YMCA Lifeguard v7. Concurrently, we had been on v6 and now have to certify everyone in v7. Lifeguard certifications are valid for 2... Read More
Week 6: From Time Clocks to Mustard Gas the Importance of Maintenance
This week we take a look into pool maintenance. This is by far one of the biggest topics to cover because there are so many small intricate parts required to keep a pool running smoothly. First off, who conducts pool maintenance? The lifeguards, the dedicated maintenance team, and pool contractors like E-Konomy Pool Service and... Read More
Week 5: Creating Memories While Making Enemies
So many memories, but now I am an enemy. I started the week out going to the pools one-by-one to drill the last of the lifeguards, but they started to complete the drills quicker than normal. I decided to then drill those guards several times, and this allowed me to find out that now they... Read More
Week 4: Drills, Drills, and some more Drills
What a week of fun in the sun; all to get rained on in the end! This week I was drilling all the lifeguards as a brand new LGI. I mainly focused on 2 types of drills: red ball and live actions. A red ball is quite literally a red ball that I throw into... Read More
Week 3: Instructors have been Instructed
What a long week. Four days, 10 hours a day, and nonstop scenarios. I have been out this whole week, which has been devoted entirely to the Lifeguard Instructor Class (LGI Class). I talked a little about this class in my last post, but this time I will discuss what the class was like and... Read More
Week 2: Trainings are Afoot
During slow times, the guards rest, the patrons swim, and the instructors prepare. This week my time has been spent by attending a lifeguard inservice and preparing materials for a lifeguard instructor class. On Sunday, I went to a lifeguard inservice. A lifeguard inservice is a specified 3 hour training session. This month’s inservice was... Read More
Week 1: Hiring New Guards
Summer is drawing near, and as such, we need to hire more lifeguards. While the YMCA currently has 18 guards working year round, they typically hire around 40 during the summer because it is such a busy time of year. I have spent this first week doing swim evaluations with new potential guards. This means... Read More
Welcome to Making a Splash with Safety
Welcome one and all to the best blog about pool safety there is. My name is George Sarah, and I am a lifeguard and swim instructor for the YMCA of Southern Arizona as well as being the Senior Guard and a swim instructor at the Terra Del Sol Aquatic Club. Coincidentally, this research also takes... Read More