Town of Riverview launches new scholarship for lifeguards

The Town of Riverview is hoping to tackle lifeguard shortages with a new scholarship initiative for guards who are looking to pursue post-secondary education.

Earlier this week the town announced its Embracing Responsibility Scholarship in Recognition of Barb Hurlbut’s Contributions to Aquatics.

“Barb’s legacy has been profound,” said Heather Reinsborough, the town’s aquatics coordinator.

“She has been the one that created a legacy of lifeguards that have gone on to do incredible things, there’s nurses, firefighters, teachers, all of them who contribute Barb to the growth and leadership that they were able to build here on the pool deck.”

Barb Hurlburt was the aquatic coordinator for over 30 years and she helped mentor over 400 lifeguards during that time.

The new annual $2,000 scholarship was created in honour of Barb and to create new recruitment tactics and promote employment at the town.

“In terms of qualification for the scholarship it will be number of hours worked on the pool deck, plus leadership skills that they have been able to gain while they worked with us,” said Reinsborough.

“So our scholarship is really based in the values that Barb, who the scholarship is named after, was adamant in teaching her staff.”

The scholarship allocates $2,000 a year, students must be employed at the Pat Crossman Memorial Aquatic Centre or its future home, it is open to Grade 12 students or those pursing post-secondary education, each applicant has to work at least 400 hours per year and they have to write an essay to be considered.

The first recipient of the Embracing Responsibility Scholarship will be announced next spring.

While outdoor swim is winding down for the season, Reinsborough says that swimming lessons and programs are about to pick up at the indoor pool. Adding that the town needs about 40 guards in order to not disrupt any planned programming.

“We have experienced some recruitment challenges,” she said.

“What happened is during the pandemic all of our programing had to come to a halt. So the lifeguards that are at our pools have over 140 hours before they even step foot and teach their first swimming lesson or guard their first pool, so when that lull happened during the pandemic, it effected our recruitment.”

Right now, she says that Riverview is on track to hit the staffing target this year.

However, she adds that recruitment has been a big focus and new initiatives, like the Embracing Responsibility Scholarship, are designed to help in future years.

“When we announced the scholarship we had lots of positive feedback from our guards and staff. It’s something they were looking for,” she said.

“They know that it’s bespoke to them, they feel really special about it and they feel really seen and heard knowing they have so much training and responsibility when they’re working here, it’s a lot on their shoulders and for us to be able to create something that recognizes all the work that they put in and then supports their post secondary education, they really feel fantastic about it.”

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