Newport Beach shutters most of its Junior Lifeguards program for the summer due to coronavirus
Newport Beach’s marquee summer youth program, the Junior Lifeguards, will be dramatically pared down this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Only about 150 of the oldest participants, ages 14 and 15, will take part in the long-running city program, which teaches ocean safety, physical fitness and citizenship every year to more than 1,300 children as young as 9.
The Division A participants will spread over two daily sessions between late June and early August, huddling into smaller groups with closer supervision.
For the younger kids who make up the majority of the Junior Guards, it’s canceled.
“We understand this is disappointing for many of our JG families,” Junior Guards staff wrote in a letter to families Thursday breaking the news. “This is something that JGs, families and staff prepare for and look forward to all year. While not ideal, this is the best option available for running a 2020 program that is safe for JGs, staff and the community.”
Newport Beach chief lifeguard Mike Halphide said Friday that between needing time to warm up the logistics and the continuing uncertainty around the pandemic, the decision is final.
Folding in the next-youngest age group, the 12- and 13-year-olds, would bring enrollment up to about 600 children, which is too many, so “we certainly can’t go to 1,300.”
“We tried to find some way to modify it to keep the program alive for 2020 and we felt the best decision was to give the older kids their last opportunity, for a sense of closure,” Halphide said. “Plus they’re the smallest group, so it just made the most sense.”
Reaction on social media and through direct appeals was swift and emotional. Newport Beach Fire Chief Jeff Boyles, who oversees the lifeguard division, said he received more than 100 emails overnight.
Boyles, a youth football coach in his spare time, used a sports analogy.
“I would hope that the younger kids and their families would rally around our Division A and support them in their final year, just like you would when the varsity team takes the field and the freshmen and the JV watch,” he said.
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Many parents understood. Some accepted the decision, some wanted to negotiate, but others seemed ready for a fight. Many said their kids were crestfallen.
“Beyond devastating. This was the last thing my kiddo was holding onto,” mom Niki Purcell wrote on Facebook. “He feels completely robbed of the super epic summer he loves.”
“So criminals are set free and our hard-working kids are pulled from sports, schools, and now summer programs!” dad Ryan Johnson wrote.
The city started its program preparations normally just as the pandemic started to take hold in Southern California, wrapping up swim tests in mid-March. It was about to begin registration when Gov. Gavin Newsom announced sweeping statewide stay-at-home orders.
Lifeguard staff decided to postpone a decision on the program until May 1. When that rolled around, they put it off again. Junior Guards is “one of the greatest things we get to be part of — the energy that you get to be part of,” Halphide said. Newport has sponsored the Junior Guards program for 36 years.
Coastal agencies in Los Angeles County have canceled their junior guards programs, as has Seal Beach. San Clemente has canceled some of its sessions. Huntington Beach has suspended registration for its program, which dates to 1964 and is almost as large as Newport’s. State Parks, which include Crystal Cove, have also suspended registration and a county-run program in Dana Point is taking registration but does not guarantee enrollment.
The City Council will consider approving on Tuesday what it calls the Fast Track Back to Business Initiative, an emergency permit waiver that would allow businesses and religious institutions to temporarily expand into parking lots, sidewalks or public property to maintain their usual occupancy with physical distancing.
Halphide, who said he consulted with medical staff at Hoag Hospital and an epidemiologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, said it would have been easy for Newport to fully cancel, too.
“But we’re Newport Beach,” he said. “Our community expects us to be different.”
The teens will be split into two sessions with an instructor ratio halved to about 10 to 1, Halphide said. Staff will build in time to disinfect shared gear.
There will be no weenie roast with thousands of hot dogs staged in the single-wide trailer that serves as the Junior Guards headquarters a stone’s throw from Balboa Pier. No morning announcements on the trailer’s deck while standing shoulder-to-shoulder in red swimsuits. The Monster Mile run-and-swim showcase will go on, but without the festive costumes.
In normal years, mild, common bugs blast through the close quarters and large groups. Although children and young adults have been largely spared from severe COVID-19 illness, they can be asymptomatic carriers, Boyles said, and he has to protect his staff and the community. The fire officials note that the current headquarters also lacks running water, which was already a safety and sanitation concern.
The tight, spare quarters have been part of the Junior Guards narrative that backers have wanted to change for years. That will also have to wait at least another year to upgrade after the City Council decided this month to delay construction on a new building as the pandemic digs a hole in city revenues.
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