FOURTEEN lifeguards, who underwent one week of intense training in the art by Canada-based Guyanese and Chief Instructor Patrick D’Almada, were yesterday charged to execute their tasks voluntarily, since it was a skill and not an occupation. D’Almada, who is attached to the Canada Lifesaving Society (CLS) for the past 24 years, was delivering some brief remarks to the certified Lifeguards at their certification ceremony held at the National Aquatic Centre (NAC).
The proceedings was chaired by Director of Sport within the National Sports Commission (NSC) Neil Kumar, who in his opening remarks thanked D’Almada, Messrs Stephanie Fraser and Dr Karen Pilgrim of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) and Neil Goberdhan for making the inaugural lifeguard training sessions possible.
“You are very fortunate, as you are the first set of persons who got certified in water lifesaving procedures here in Guyana,” Kumar told the participants, which included Fraser and Guyana’s first Olympic swimmer Niall Roberts.
Alluding to Minister of Sport Dr Frank Anthony’s plea to form a Lifeguard Association here in Guyana, Kumar said that will be done shortly and named the certified lifeguards as the nucleus of that body which will be undergoing annual developmental exercises and programmes.
“We must make full use of this opportunity that is being afforded to you and the Government of Guyana would be looking at swimming closely, with the aim of having persons swimming to survive and at the same time introduce swimming in schools, as this is not a one-off activity,” said Kumar.
Kumar expressed heartfelt thanks to D’Almada for sharing his expertise with the 14 participants, while he showered praise on both Dr Pilgrim and Fraser for the initiative shared in having the lifeguard programme being held here in Guyana.
D’Almada said the first few days of the course could be compared to a man trying to squeeze blood out of a stone, since he had no idea what he was meeting, but as time progressed, things eased, before charging his students to do the work voluntarily.
“I would like for all 14 of you, to take this programme seriously. Don’t take it as an occupation, but rather as a skill that you can use to help somebody in distress, therefore I am asking all of you to do this voluntarily,” said D’Almada.
In a show of gesture, D’Almada handed over to Kumar the lifesaving equipment he brought to Guyana to conduct his demonstrations along with some jerseys to be used by the members of the soon-to-be-formed Lifeguard Association here.
While they received temporary National Lifeguard membership cards, with some of them also receiving bronze medals and crosses, D’Almada said the official identification cards would be shipped to the respective participants via the mail in the coming weeks, adding that their achievements make them recognisable around the Commonwealth.
Dr Pilgrim, Fraser and Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Sport Alfred King also thanked D’Almada for imparting his expertise into the participants, with Fraser going on further to thank the Government of Guyana for the permission to use the NAC for the sessions.
King also told the certified participants, that four of them would be employed on a full-time basis at the NAC with immediate effect – a statement that was made by Dr Anthony the previous day at a press briefing held at the same venue.
This means the other 10 can offer their services to places such as Hotel Tower, Splashmins, Baganara and Madewini Resorts and the other entities that have pools that are made available to the public.
According to King, the Ministry of Sport is also looking to use the upper deck of the NAC as a training room, saying they have the equipment on hand, but just need the necessary personnel to oversee the training programme of the athletes who will be using the facility.