Philadelphia Parks & Recreation officials offer $1K bonus for new lifeguard hires
The first step to becoming a lifeguard is simple: dust off your swimming skills.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- With summer right around the corner, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation announced it's expanding its free lifeguard training.
If you're interested, officials say that anyone who signs up in the next month will lock-in an end of the season bonus of $1,000.
Officials said the training is now available seven days a week in three locations across the city.
Training will be held at Abraham Lincoln High School, Friends Select School, and St. Joseph's Prepatory School, officials said.
The city said its goal is to open all 60 free public pools this summer.
"Parks & Rec aims to hire 400 lifeguards this summer to staff Philadelphia's 60+ free outdoor public pools," said Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell.
The first step to becoming a lifeguard is simple: dust off your swimming skills.
Anyone interested in becoming a lifeguard must take a screening test to become certified in Philadelphia. Applicants can sign up here.
To pass the test, applicants must complete the following:
- Swim 300 yards non-stop (12 laps of freestyle or breaststroke).
- Tread water for two minutes using only your legs without your hands.
- Retrieve a 10-pound brick from a deep well, then return to the surface and swim 20 yards back to the starting point with the brick, using only your legs. The brick must be held out of the water with both hands. You must complete this task within one minute and 40 seconds.
"Learning to swim is a life lesson, and a life saving lesson," said Water Safety Instructor Thelma Nesbitt. "Our City lifeguards are heroes. They save lives on the pool deck and in the shallow end teaching the next generation how to swim."
To apply to become a lifeguard in Philadelphia, click here.
