Health and physical education teacher Mr. Steve Woolery is offering a class on lifesaving and CPR training on the weekends.
“Lifeguard Training, Fitness, and Sport” provides students with training and certifications in lifeguarding and CPR while focusing on important skills in swimming, first aid, and AED usage.
“It’s for professional CPR and for the professional AED trainer. You will learn a higher level of CPR and AED than you learn from the regular education classes,” Woolery said.
The class attracts a variety of interested students, such as students wanting to work as lifeguards, members of Haven’s swim teams, and scouts who want to get their lifesaving merit badge or further advance their training.
However, Woolery said that even beyond these groups, everyone can benefit.
“You’re learning the CPR, the AED, the first aid training,” he said. “ You might know enough, just enough, to save their life.”
Woolery has been interested in lifeguarding since college as an athlete in aquatic sports. He bonded with his coach, who co-ran a lifeguard instruction course. Woolery took the course and became certified himself.
“I didn’t know if I was going to use it in life or not,” he said.
However, Woolery’s interest in swimming continued to be a major part of his life. For twenty years, he has co-run the pool management company IM Pools, which manages local pools like Rose Valley Swim Club.
The class requires some prerequisites that students need to demonstrate on the first day, including an untimed 150-yard swim and the timed task of retrieving a brick from eleven feet deep and returning it to the surface.
“You don’t have to be the greatest swimmer in the world,” Woolery said. “But if you have the ability to do those two things, you will absolutely be able to pass the class.”
Sophomore Veronica King used the skills she learned during the weekend class, as well as its pre-weekend online portion, to become a lifeguard.
“The skills we learned for lifeguarding are just really versatile in general,” she said.
King noted the benefits of the online portion’s emphasis on social interactions as a lifeguard.
“It’s really valuable,” she said. “From lifeguarding, I’ve learned a lot about how to interact with kids and adults.”
She listed topics like spinal extrications and CPR as some of the harder parts of the class to master.
“It’s such a short time period,” she said. “But once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy.”
Both Woolery and King highlighted the personal connections made with everyone in the course.
“They’re coming in here, they’re learning how to rescue, and walking out here knowing they got a certificate to be a certified lifeguard,” Woolery said. “It’s not the easiest thing to do.”
Those interested in taking the course can use the attached QR code or speak with Mr. Woolery.
“You’re giving up a weekend to become a professional lifeguard. Which is pretty cool overall,” he said.
