James Meyers
I became a lifeguard at 16 and never left. In my late teens I managed a summer pool and in my early 20’s, I was the Aquatics Director at the Jewish Community Center where we tripled the amount of people using aquatic programs in less than a year. After a stint as an EMT, I worked for the Red Cross running the Health and Safety programs to include developing a non-certified program called CPR Made Simple (which was adopted nationally for a short period of time). In the over 15 years I have been an instructor, I have certified over 1,000 lifeguards and over 10,000 people in first aid and CPR.
Professionally, I am in the logistics business where we own a warehouse, transportation, and transportation management businesses along with commercial real estate. My wife has also partnered with a few of my former co-workers at the Red Cross and started a first aid and CPR training business.
When I am not spending time with wife and sons, I do volunteer work to include co-chair of the pool operations committee for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials-Swimming and chairman of the lifeguard committee in 2012. I served as a board member of one of our local YMCA branches for a few years and am currently chairman of the lifeguard committee for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials-Swimming. To makes pools safer, I have also served as an expert witness in a near-drowning court case.
This website and the upcoming lifeguard training program is a way for me to give back to an institution that was good to me when I was a teenager and young adult.