The Melita swimming program is still up in the air as far as staffing goes, and whether or not to open the pool for the season.

Getting enough qualified lifeguards for the summer swimming program is the biggest hurdle for the Melita rec program, but that is only one of the difficulties facing the Rec Department.

Chief Financial Officer, Breigh Crepeele, has been instrumental in getting the pool facility and staffing ready to roll.  Crepeele says they’re hoping they’ll be up and running by the beginning of July – but that all depends on the province and COVID restrictions, and whether they can secure enough staff to instruct.

The problem lies with COVID closures of larger swimming centres and the inability to re-certify lifeguards for the summer programs.

“Our biggest struggle right now is with all the students being able to get the courses that they need,” she explains. “With the larger indoor pools shut down they can’t run the necessary instructing courses and lifeguarding courses and so we’re trying to find our own instructors to come out to our pool just to give our kids here the chance to be able to be qualified to accept a position with us.  And that is the biggest struggle right now.”

The added stress of the unknowns heading into summer begs the question of whether the pools will actually be able to open and remain open, provide swimming lessons and public swims. This, Crepeele feels, adds to the hesitation of qualified lifeguards applying for these positions.

Weighing the odds of lack of staff and potential COVID closures, Crepeele says they’re still not sure whether they’ll take the risk and get the pool ready.

“I don’t know if kids are more scared to apply for pools just because of the restrictions where they could lose their job if things got shut down,” she explains.  Right now, we’re just pushing through and crossing our fingers that the Province won’t shut us down and hopefully we’ll be up and running by the beginning of July.”

Typically, the Melita Rec Department facilitates swimming instructions and public swims with between 5-8 lifeguards/instructors.   Crepeele shares how the unknowns have left them hanging as to which direction to go.

“Right now we have two instructors and that is with me trying to find instructors to come out to get them re-certified,” she adds.  “We have a lot of up-and-coming kids who are 15 and want to get their course and we are trying to offer them as much help with getting hours in the office and the COVID cleaning and helping with lessons if they have their WSI.   We don’t want to lose those kids, we want to give them something so that we have them next year when they’re sixteen.”

Neighboring rural communities have been struggling with securing lifeguards, except for Deloraine which has a wealth of local lifeguards.  “We’ve actually reached out to them to offer their staff extra hours to come to Melita if they want to.  We’re all communities in the same area and we can help each other out.”

The cost of lifeguard instruction runs at $350 per participant, which can be steep for any student.  Crepeele shares how their community is coming together to help with this hurdle as well.

 Melita’s Town Council will be making a decision fairly soon whether to proceed with opening the pool or not. 

Crepeele says everyone understands the predicament they’re in. 

“They know how kids are struggling with activities.  I mean, they all just got shut down with their baseball which was supposed to start this week.  So, I know the council is worried for the kids and for the residents of Melita to be able to do something for the summer.  I mean, when you can’t travel you want to be able to offer something so I think they’re going to hold out as long as they possibly can.”