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It’s the dream job of summer. You’re outdoors. You wear cool shades. You’ve got a whistle. You’re buff, and you’re in charge. Ah, the life of a lifeguard. Tan lines all summer long.
But lifeguards at the area’s four public pools say their job can be challenging. On average, they make about $7 an hour and work as many as 10 hours a day, six or seven days a week. Their job description: Save lives.
To that end, the work also involves the delicate balance of being firm but friendly with children, and even firmer with parents, as well as enforcing the supreme rule of pool safety and the most common reminder lifeguards shout all day long: NO RUNNING.
“It’s a big responsibility,” said Cat Kenney, a 21-year-old kinesiology major at the University of Maine and a lifeguard at the Beth Pancoe Municipal Aquatic Center in Bangor. “We have a lot of saves here. Mostly it’s children who are excited about the slides, but they can’t swim.”
“You work long hours,” said Marie Lint, a 20-year-old student a Saint Joseph’s College of Maine in Standish and a lifeguard for the last four years at the Orono Municipal Pool. “You’re in the sun all day, and that takes it out of you. And you’re dealing with kids all day. But I love this job.”
The four outdoor, public pools in the area employ about 41 full-time guards, half a dozen part-time workers, and another four or so gate attendants. Their various additional duties include enforcing safety rules, keeping the deck and changing room areas clean, maintaining water safety standards and keeping records.
They also have to make that difficult call: when to close for inclement weather. Lightning and thunder are an automatic close for at least 30 minutes from the last occurrence.
The Bangor pools require workers to wear the signature red bathing suits of official lifeguards. In Brewer, lifeguards wear the suits of their choice as long as the women wear one-piece suits. In Orono, the choice is even broader: Women may wear two-piece sports suits.
Sunglasses, toenail polish and the manner in which one wears the ubiquitous whistle are the only remaining fashion statements.
There is also the issue of sunscreen, a vital safety precaution for anyone who spends extended time in the sun.
“We have some guards who don’t believe in SPF. I start the summer with 45 and go down, usually to 15 by the end of summer,” said Lint.
Several of the lifeguards also teach swimming in morning sessions. During the half-hour time slots, they teach children the basics through to advanced swimming. The smallest of the kids glom onto their instructors, yanking at their suits, grasping for their arms, and generally crawling on their bodies in the water.
Eric Palmer, the 20-year-old director at Brewer’s zero-entry pool, which allows swimmers to ease into the pool as if it were a lake, likes that the pool is a focal point for families in the summer. He was a competitive swimmer at Bangor High School, and now is a political science and history major at UM. Swimming, unlike basketball, football and soccer, is a lifelong sport, he said. “You can swim at 10 or 110,” he likes to say.
A young politician already in the making, Palmer thinks of his work as a way to “give back to the community.”
“I love my job,” he said. “I love interacting with the kids. Playing with them all day long is an amazing feeling. It’s one of those jobs where you wake up and you can’t wait to go to work.”
Alicia Anstead can be reached at 990-8266 and aanstead@bangordailynews.net.
Greater Bangor area public pools
The pool days of summer are waning. But there’s still time left to visit your neighborhood pool. Admission and hours vary. Contact your local recreation department for more information.
Orono Municipal Pool
Monday-Friday
Goodridge Drive near Orono Middle School
11:30 a.m.-noon: Parent-child (under 5)
Noon-12:50 p.m.: Lap swim
1-4 p.m.: General swim
4:30-5:30 p.m.: Lap swim
5:30-6 p.m.: Aquatic workout
6-7:30 p.m. General swim
Saturday-Sunday
11:30 a.m.-noon: Parent-child (under 5)
Noon-12:50 p.m.: Lap swim
1-4 p.m.: General swim
4-5 p.m.: Family swim
Last day: Aug. 27
Brewer Municipal Pool
State Street near Brewer Auditorium
Monday-Friday
1-6:30 p.m.: General swim
Saturday-Sunday
Noon-4:30 p.m.: General swim
Last day: Aug. 26
Bangor pools
Dakin Pool
North Park Street off Broadway and Stillwater Avenue.
Monday-Sunday
1-5 p.m.: General swim
Last day: Aug. 21
Beth Pancoe Municipal Aquatic Center
Union and 13th streets
Monday-Sunday
1-5 p.m.: Family swim
Monday-Friday
Noon-1p.m.: Adult lap swim
Last day: Aug. 21
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