Philly Parks and Rec summer camps end with a first -- universal swim lessons
Parks and Rec had to work hard to find enough lifeguards this summer, offering pay bonuses and school credit hours with Temple.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- It's the last week of summer camp for Philadelphia Parks and Rec, but the city is hoping the benefits of this six-week camp season will last for years.
For the first time, Philadelphia Parks and Rec summer camps provided universal swim lessons for all campers enrolled in summer camps at sites that had open pools.
"As of the last count, about 3,000 kids did swim lessons this summer," said Bill Salvatore, the deputy commissioner of programming at Philadelphia Parks and Rec.
The lessons are something that's needed in the city.
"It's no secret that inner city kids are adversely affected by accidents in the water," said Salvatore.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the rate of drowning for Black kids is more than double the rate of kids of other races.
Nationwide, 848 kids died by accidental drowning in 2021. It's a statistic 7-year-old Anthony Stones came too close to being part of as he swam in the pool at Francisville Playground in North Philadelphia.
"I almost drowned in the deep end," he said.
His life was saved by the lifeguard who is also his uncle.
"He came at the right time," said Anthony of his uncle Mitchell Mungo, who is in his third year as a lifeguard.
Like the campers he works with, Mungo also learned to swim with Parks and Rec never thinking he'd become a lifeguard.
"(I) got into the classes," he said of the certification process after being taught more swimming techniques. "After two weeks of classes, I was a lifeguard."
Parks and Rec had to work hard to find enough lifeguards this summer, offering pay bonuses and school credit hours with Temple University.
"We hired around 360," said Salvatore. "Ideally we want to get around that 400, 425 number."
They're hoping the kids who learn to swim now will be inspired to work later. The goal is for the universal swim lessons to help build a pipeline of future lifeguards.
"They can enter certification classes when they're 15 and be on the pool deck when they're 16," said Salvatore.
"I think that's better if kids here become lifeguards and they get to work at this pool," said Mungo.
Even though summer camp is wrapping up, the effort to recruit lifeguards is year-round. Philadelphia Parks and Rec will use indoor pool facilities to offer certification classes all winter in hopes of preventing any shortage next summer.
