Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The City of Buffalo and the Police Athletic League (PAL) of Buffalo are looking to recruit more lifeguards ahead of the first official training and certification session of the new year.
"I'm excited to announce that the City of Buffalo in collaboration with the Police Athletic League of Buffalo is back for another year offering lifeguard certification training for City of Buffalo residents aged 16 to 21," said Nekia Kemp, PAL of Buffalo's Executive Director.
"Right now, youth who live in the City of Buffalo can register for training to become certified lifeguards by the Red Cross for free. This year, any youth who obtains their certification and completes the process to work with the City of Buffalo pools will receive an additional $525 sign-on bonus and a civil service job."
Kemp strongly encourages youth to not delay and enroll for the first class session which starts next Saturday, January 13 at Cazenovia Pool (626 Abbott Road.
Non-residents can also apply, the fee to register is $250 and $75 for recertification.
The city is looking to have 100 lifeguards at the ready this year so they can reopen all of the outdoor pools in the summer. They currently have 29 students enrolled in the first training session, they are looking to fill the training session with at least 65 students.
"We will have enough lifeguards to reopen the three outdoor pools like we did last year, but we are hoping to recruit more lifeguards to be able to open up Houghton an JFK pools as well as keep the two indoor pools open like last summer," explained Samuel Orsene, City of Buffalo's Supervisor of Pools and Rinks.
"The first session will start in January next week. It will run consecutively for three weekends Saturday and Sundays and then we'll host another session coming up in March of this year. We're really hoping to get all of those slots filled because again, we don't want to have to stagger those pool hours over the summer or also have pools closed because we don't have enough lifeguards for the summer," added Kemp.
Last year, the City of Buffalo hired 43 lifeguards, bringing their total lifeguard count in 2023 to 59 guards.
The lifeguards will get paid $20 an hour and supervising lifeguards will get paid $22 an hour. Click here for more information.