CHICAGO — As Friday marked the official start of summer beach season, the city continues to face a severe, widespread lifeguard shortage that could result in closed beaches and pools later this year.
Chicago Park District officials are hoping an added $500 bonus for new seasonal lifeguards will boost a recent recruitment push to fill the 587 lifeguard positions it needs for a full staff.
As of May 16, 686 people had applied for the position of lifeguard but none had been hired, according to the Park District. Before they can be hired, lifeguard candidates must earn their certification from the American Red Cross, which only recently resumed training classes following a complete halt during the pandemic shutdown.
Complicating recruitment efforts is that the search comes on the heels of a sweeping lifeguard sex abuse scandal that led to a shake-up at the Park District last fall following revelations that the former head of the district failed to properly forward allegations of sex abuse against lifeguard supervisors.
The country is already facing a national lifeguard shortage attributed, in part, to COVID-19 lockdowns that reduced the in-person training required for certification, as well as travel restrictions that drastically decreased the number of international students who work as lifeguards each summer, industry experts said. Public and private pools and aquatic centers across the country and locally, including in suburban Oak Park and Aurora, have had to change their hours or close altogether, according to published reports.
“Here we are. We’ve already had hot days and there aren’t enough people in the pipeline,” said Juanita Irizarry, executive director of Friends of the Parks, an advocacy organization.
Irizarry said she is worried the scandal had hurt the reputation of the district’s lifeguard program at a time when restless teenagers were expected to hit the beaches with renewed vigor following the forced lockdowns that took them away from friends.
With Chicago’s beaches opening Friday, along with pools scheduled to open June 24, the dearth of lifeguards doesn’t bode well for beaches and pools across the area during the first summer without pandemic restrictions. No beaches are expected to be closed on opening day, Park District officials said, but if there are closures, the district’s website will be updated and alerts sent to the media.
Six people have already died in suspected drownings in Lake Michigan this year, according to the nonprofit Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, which tracks drownings in the Great Lakes.
Irizarry is encouraging the Park District to invest in alternate ways to help stop drownings. She pointed to a recent installation of life safety rings along the lakefront as an example of alternative solutions.
“Maybe this issue’s even bigger than lifeguards. What other things can the Park District be doing to prevent drownings?” she said. “Because people will be out on the beach. We’ve been cooped up with COVID and there’s going to be a lot of people on the beach, and there’s not going to be enough lifeguards.”
The district announced the $500 bonus as part of its “I Am a Chicago Lifeguard” recruitment campaign, which puts a spotlight on the varied skills needed for lifeguard work. Seasonal lifeguard applicants 16 and older must pass a skills test to become certified and the new bonus is supposed to help defray the approximately $100 cost for Red Cross certification training, city officials said. Seasonal lifeguards make $15.88 an hour.
The plan comes under Superintendent Rosa Escareño, who stepped in last October after her predecessor, Mike Kelly, resigned following a probe by the Park District’s Office of Inspector General that found Kelly waited six months before forwarding an accusation of an “inappropriate relationship” with an underage former seasonal employee and an adult supervisor. Chicago public radio station WBEZ was the first to report the scandal.
The American Red Cross of Greater Chicago is also encouraging area youth and young adults to take lifeguard classes for the lifesaving skills that can be gained. Red Cross training courses teach prospective lifeguards about water rescues, first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
“These are life skills that we want as many people as possible to have, so it’s definitely an important thing to consider for yourself, for your kids and your family,” Red Cross spokeswoman Holly Baker said.
The district is also offering a $200 bonus to other seasonal staff including young laborers and attendants.
Irizarry applauded the Park District’s outreach, saying the jobs were desperately needed for the city’s unemployed youth, particularly with recent incidents of large teen crowds that led Mayor Lori Lightfoot to institute a 10 p.m. curfew for minors following a fatal shooting near the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park.
“Friends of the Parks would hope that if (the Park District) have to make tough decisions about where to invest in new lifeguards, we think about how youth in this city need appropriate outlets,” she said, “and try to put programs in place in communities where kids are most underserved and communities (that) mostly need positive outlets.”
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