Lincoln Park District summer of water fun comes to a close after Labor Day
 

[September 02, 2021]    Lincoln Park District Aquatic Center is winding up its sixth year. The outdoor facility offers three types of areas with many uses.

The delightful toddler wading pool has a small slide, fountains and waterfalls set in a playful tropical pirate theme that babies through young children just delight in. A 25 meter lap pool offers lap swimming and water aerobics for fitness and family fun swimming. And the tall twisty water slide delivers a luge experience for older children and even adults enjoy the thrilling ride into a plunge pool.

First year Pool Manager Jennifer Prather, who is also the Park District’s Fitness Manager, is reflecting on her first year. She says it was a year like for many others in management filled with challenges and achievements after a year closure due to covid. She has a lot to be happy about this year's successes and is making plans for the next season that include some exciting new pool activities. Prather said, “It was a pleasure to be able to serve our community with a fun, safe environment this summer, especially since we were not able to open our aquatic center in 2020.

A well-run pool attracts water lovers

This year Prather instituted an online lap time signup that helped alleviate congestion allowing better fitness level swims. Additional water fitness was offered through Water Aerobics which has been more popular than ever.

Prather said many families and individuals have enjoyed our facility over the years. We offer special summer activities like Family Night swims, Family Fun days that are themed each month, special 4th of July games, Summer Olympics and a Mini-triathlon to name a few.

Opening for the 2021 summer season was a little bit challenging for most Illinois businesses due to covid mandates. Pools and other types of businesses that rely on trained young workers all struggled to get enough help.

Prather said, "Getting involved with helping the guards this summer was such a great experience.” The lifeguard staff consisted of six returning guards and nine new lifeguards.

Prather brought some new team building experiences to the lifeguarding team this summer. “We had an incentive program for the guards that ran all summer long. They were able to collect incentive coins based on their performance, attending in-service training, rescues and being a team player. The guards could then spend their coins on concession food and on special items that were only available with incentive coins.” Having the incentive coin system in place was motivational for the summer crew. “It pushed me to continuously stay on top of the job,” said lifeguard Delaney Park.

In-service training

The guards were required to attend four hours a month of in-service training. In the training they would perform rescues to help them be more prepared and knowledgeable, team building activities like relay races, helping their teammates walk across the water on kickboards, and also swimming different distances with different obstacles along the way.

Lifeguard Zildjian Bolton said, “I was able to swim way better because of the in-service training we did, it also built the team up as a group. It gave me more confidence knowing I can save someone who needs saving and let me get to know the guards as we worked through the same drills and saves.”

First year lifeguard Tyson Lile said, Having the team building training “made me more open to helping my coworkers.”

Family Fun Days

This summer we had a Super Hero day, Christmas in July, and Birthday Party Day. It is always fun to have these special days where we collect items for different non-profit organizations. This year we collected for the local food pantry, Humane Society, and Moms Who Care. With the donation of an item for the organization we were collecting for you would get free admission into the aquatic center for the day.

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“Christmas! It was super cool and fun!” was returning guard Sara Sloan's favorite family fun day this summer.

Asked, "What is it that you like about family fun days?" guard Abby Montgomery responded, “The people have fun getting into it and I love watching all of the families get together, have fun and the kids have fun with the other kids as well.”

Junior Lifeguard Program

The Junior lifeguard program was new this year as well. Prather said four kids aged 11-15 years were part of the program this year. They were able to learn the basics of CPR and the usage of an AED, perform their basic rescues, and practice the swimming skills needed to get lifeguard certified. After the competition of this course, the junior guards were able to volunteer on different days throughout the summer to see what it was like to be a lifeguard. They would shadow a head lifeguard or they were able to operate the guard stations at the top of the slide as well as the backup guard location for if any guard in need of assistance.

Crew Parties

This summer we had two crew parties. One was at the beginning of the season. We had a pool party with potluck including all of the summer staff. To finish the year off we had a murder mystery dinner party with an awards banquet. “It was nice to recognize the crew for their amazing work they have done all summer long. From the concession stand workers to pool attendants to the lifeguards, they all worked incredibly hard from day one. I couldn’t have done it without this amazing group,” said Jennifer Prather

Overall, the Lincoln Park District enjoys having the community join us in the aquatic center for a day of fun, Prather says. When we asked a few of our guards what they liked about working at the Lincoln Park District this is what they had to say:

“It's a good environment to work in” Alex Downing, returning guard since 2016.

“Everything, the people, management, and I also really like the responsibility of making sure everyone is safe” Reagan Bell, first year lifeguard.

Prather said, "These guards worked so hard this summer!"

"If you or someone you know would be interested in becoming part of our summer crew next summer please send an email to [e-mail] so you can be notified when we start taking applications."

Lap swim continues daily 10:30 a.m. to noon and there is afternoon open swim on weekends. Call for details.

The last day for the pool this summer will be Labor day from noon - 6 p.m. Prather says, "We hope you join us before the season is over."

[Jennifer Prather, Fitness Manager, Pool Manager with contributions by Jan Youngquist]