One year ago, Djerry Dimanche had just arrived in Dorchester from his native Haiti and was working as a summer staffer at the Melnea Cass Pool. That’s when Nadine Johnson-Jesionek, who works as the aquatics regional operations manager for the Boston Center for Youth and Families (BCYF), encouraged him to learn how to be a lifeguard.

Dimanche, 22, took her up on the offer and trained in life-saving pool safety last spring. Recently, while working at the Mason Pool in Roxbury, he saved a young boy who had been pushed into the water but could not swim.

“It was a summer day camp that was here and one of the boys wasn’t ready to go into the pool and then another pushed him in,” said Dimanche, who attends Roxbury Community College studying business management.

“He couldn’t swim, and I went in the water and was able to take him out. It was stressful, but I trained for that, and it was okay. I feel good about it. This was one of my goals, to be a lifeguard, and Miss Nadine helped me to achieve it.”

Dimanche is one success story of many that city officials are pointing to this summer, the result of a recruitment campaign that parallels a larger Wu administration effort to re-open more city pools and make swimming lessons more widely available.

“It’s about going to the places where kids are and meeting them where they are at,” said Johnson-Jesionek of the recruitment drive.

The city has also invested funds to make lifeguard jobs more competitive, going from $15 per hour to $22, with $26 per hour for a supervisor position. There is also a sign-on bonus of $1,000 that is given incrementally if one stays through the summer without missing five days.

Meanwhile, for those like Dimanche and Long Tran, another Dorchester recruit, who could swim but weren’t quite able to pass the lifeguard test, BCYF offered Saturday training courses starting in February – a $450 class given for free with a commitment to BCYF.

“It’s the first time the city has offered sign-on or retention bonuses because others are offering incentives like that and we weren’t,” said Marta Rivera, the director of BCYF.

By being more competitive and leaning on relationships built by Johnson-Jesionek, along with making a push at high school swim meets to students and parents, the ranks have grown steadily.

“This is a problem that we have always had for many years, but was exacerbated by Covid-19,” said Rivera. “This is the first time we’ve completely filled all 68 seasonal lifeguard positions and we actually now have 74 seasonal hires.”

The expanded lifeguard workforce now allows city officials to offer more programming, including lessons.

“We weren’t able to do lessons,” Rivera said, “and in some cases we couldn’t even open pools. Now we can open all pools that are in operation seven days, and we have enough staff to do programming like swim lessons.”

On the facilities front, the Marshall Community Center Pool in Dorchester re-opened last spring, and the fully renovated pool at the Mattahunt Community Center in Mattapan opened shortly afterward. Though the Mildred Avenue Community Center has seen starts and stops in its pool schedule, it is now open. And just this month the Perkins Community Center pool on Talbot Avenue opened its doors after a long-term closure.
There is still work to be done. The Holland Community Center pool on Geneva Avenue – along with the Blackstone Community Center pool in the South End – are going to take more time.

“The only pool in Dorchester closed is the Holland,” said Rivera. “It will need significant repairs – a major capital project – as will the Blackstone. We’re still investigating what we need to do there.”

Lifeguards Djerry Dimanche, left, and Long Tran, right, with Nadine Johnson-Jesionek, BCYF aquatics regional operations manager, at the Mason Pool last week. Seth Daniel photo

In Neponset, the popular Leahy-Holloran Community Center pool is also closed this summer, not for pool repairs, but due to a multi-year school construction project that’s being done over summer break.

“The work that needed to happen at Leahy-Halloran couldn’t be done during a school vacation week,” Rivera noted. “We don’t like to close pools in the summer. It’s not popular, but if we want these buildings to stand the test of time, we have to invest in them. It’s a Catch-22.”

Where the pools are closed, kids from those community centers are transported to nearby pools. For instance, those at the Holland are taken to the Marshall.

And it’s in those open facilities, like at the Mason Pool, where swimmers of all ages and all abilities will meet Dorchester lifeguards like Dimanche and Tran.

The latter, a rising senior at John D. O’Bryant High School who enjoys math and computers, said he learned to swim at a family pool and saved his sister when he was younger. When he saw the job offered on a flier last winter, he inquired.

“I want to make the pool a safe place to swim for everyone and explore all my options, too,” he said. “The other lifeguards here make it feel like a great place. I feel confident and able to talk and interact with them…Honestly, you do get a little nervous that someone might drown…You don’t always know if you’ll know what to do, but I have the training and sometimes you have to jump in and make the save.”

Added Dimanche: “I like to keep everyone in the water safe. I don’t ever want to leave.”