Before I tell the story, let me backtrack a little.
When I was a Sophomore at Verona Area High School in Verona, Wisconsin, students were able to choose some of their elective classes for the following school year. One option that caught my attention was lifeguarding.
For an entire semester, our fitness class was held at the swimming pool. Every day we learned CPR, rescue techniques, first aid, water safety, and spent countless hours swimming laps and practicing emergency scenarios. At the end of the semester, if you successfully completed the course, you earned your American Red Cross lifeguarding certification.
I thought it was one of the best classes the school offered.
The following summer, in 2011, I was hired as a lifeguard at the Goodman Aquatic Center, located at the Irwin A. and Robert D. Goodman Jewish Community Campus in Verona, Wisconsin. It was my first real job as a certified lifeguard. I enjoyed the work, performed well throughout the summer, and was invited back the following year before I graduated high school and moved out of state.
During that second summer, at 18 years old, I experienced my first real water rescue.
It was a beautiful Wisconsin afternoon—about 75 degrees, sunny, and the pool was fairly busy.
A toddler, probably around two years old, was walking along the edge of the pool. I don’t think the child had quite learned what water was yet because it honestly looked like they thought they could just walk on it.
Instead, the toddler stepped directly into the water, immediately sank to the bottom, and disappeared beneath the surface.
The moment I saw it happen, I blew my whistle, jumped from my lifeguard chair, entered the water, grabbed the child, and lifted them onto the side of the pool.
The entire rescue probably lasted about 10 seconds.
Thankfully, the child was completely okay. They got up, walked over to their mother, and everything returned to normal almost as quickly as it had happened.
But had no one reacted immediately, the situation could have become much more serious.
After the rescue, I climbed back into my lifeguard chair and finished the remainder of my 15-minute rotation. At the Goodman Aquatic Center, guards rotated every 15 minutes between different stations around the facility and the guard room.
When I returned to the guard shack after my rotation, my manager, Leah, asked me why I had left my chair.
I looked at her and simply said, “A kid was drowning.”
I also mentioned that the child’s mother had thanked me for saving her child.
To my surprise, Leah told me I shouldn’t have left my chair until another manager or another lifeguard had officially relieved me and covered the station first.
I was pretty easygoing back then, so I didn’t argue.
Instead, she issued me a formal warning and told me if I received two more warnings, I’d be fired.
Looking back, I still laugh about that conversation.
Fortunately, not everyone agreed with the decision. Several of the other lifeguards, along with the aquatic director, told me afterward they believed I had done the right thing and handled the rescue well.
Looking back more than a decade later, I don’t remember the warning nearly as much as I remember the rescue.
That little 10-second moment reinforced one of the biggest lessons lifeguards are taught: when seconds matter, hesitation can cost a life.
Thankfully, that afternoon ended with a child safely walking back to their family, and that’s what I’ll always remember most.
Note from leadership in 2026: After the resignation of our longtime Pool Manager (different from Leah), Jewish Federation of Madison split the role into two positions: one for daytime Camp Shalom pool operations and one for evening and weekend public pool operations. We have hired a manager for the daytime camp pool, but have not been able to hire the evening/weekend pool manager needed to safely and responsibly operate public swim hours.
Because pool operations require appropriate leadership, supervision, staffing, and safety protocols, we have made the difficult decision not to open the pool for regular public access this summer.
Live in the area with manager experience? Apply on their website for the 2027 season.
