By Renae Brown

   Whether pretending to drown or saving others who were pretending to, Frances Gulseth swam her way through lifeguard training and assisting to become a full lifeguard. 

   Frances, a freshman at Tempe Preparatory Academy, trained as a junior lifeguard at the Kiwanis Indoor Wave Pool, during which she earned volunteer hours while learning how to be a lifeguard. 

   While junior lifeguards are not paid employees, they do earn service hours, train for future positions as a lifeguard and rotate stations around the pool. 

   Frances’ goal for participating in the program was to earn service hours and gain the necessary skills to become a lifeguard later down the line. Service hours are earned by working at the pool and attending trainings. 

   Trainings, which occurred every week, included first aid drills such as splinting, eye care and CPR, as well as learning about the stages of how to save people from drowning. 

   However, junior lifeguards need to re-learn their skills if they are hired. “It was just … giving you … base skills. … We weren’t actually allowed to put any of this into practice (due to) legal liabilities,” said Frances. 

   Day-to-day obligations for junior lifeguards include doing chores such as cleaning and rotating through stations. At Kiwanis, stations include watching the pool while on the beach or from the chairs, selling inflatable tubes, working at the first aid station and being on break – or, as it is also known, rove. 

   Rove is a particularly fun part of the day for Frances because there are multiple people to interact with while taking a break from watching the pool. However, everyone is still on high alert for the sound of a whistle. 

   Now that Frances has been accepted as a full, paid lifeguard for summer, she said, “I’m a little nervous … ’cause other people’s lives are in my hands.” Additionally, although people do not drown very often, and Frances will not be solely responsible for her assigned area, lifeguards still often jump into the pool on false alarms, which can be tough.

   In the end, now that Frances’ junior service has concluded, she has a paid summer job to look forward to.