Robbins helps kids in the classroom and at the pool

Lisa Robbins wears more than one hat…and is more than happy to do so.

She loves children and feels she has the best of both worlds, as she teaches kindergarten at Jefferson School during the school year and works with them in the summer as manager of the Vandalia Municipal Swimming Pool.

She will begin her 24th year teaching kindergarten this year, and has worked at the swimming pool for 30 years.

She began working at the pool as a lifeguard.

“This is my 24th year as manager,” she said. “I started as a lifeguard and then moved up to assistant manager, then to manager.

“I love the water, and I love working with kids. That’s why I feel that God surely blessed me, because I have the best of both worlds.

“I began teaching kindergarten right out of college,” she said. “Mrs. (Beulah) Brown was retiring, so I had great big shoes to fill.”

Robbins has a long history with the Vandalia pool. “I learned to swim here. When I was 5, my brother and I took swimming lessons here,” she said. “Then I trained here to be a lifeguard. Then I went to Litchfield to get my WSI (Water Safety Instructor’s license).

“Then, in 1984-85, I got my lifeguard instructor’s license, and I’ve been teaching lifeguarding training ever since.”

Robbins trains all the people that work at the pool, those who work the Vandalia Lake Jaycees’ Beach and those at the pool in St. Elmo.

“When I certify them, I have to know that they will be able to save themselves and someone else,” she said.

Blending Both Worlds

Lisa said she tells the kids and their parents on the first day of kindergarten, "Your children are now my children. I will love them, teach them, take care of them, discipline them, just as if they are my own.

“They become my kids, and once they are my kids, they are my kids for life. My first kindergarten class graduated in 1999, and now I have seven lifeguards on staff that I taught in kindergarten,” she said.

“It’s exciting to see them grow and become responsible adults. And I tell them, this will look good on a job resumé, because if you are a lifeguard, you have to be responsible and dependable, you have to be able to make quick, good, sound decisions and be quick-thinking.”

The number of participants in lifeguard classes varies from year to year.

“This year we have 10, which is pretty good,” Robbins said. “Usually, we have from six to eight,” she said. “There is a pre-test to be accepted for the class.

“You have to be able to swim 300 hundred yards continuously, and you have to be able to do the front crawl, the freestyle and the breast stroke.

“Then there is a time test. You have to swim out 20 yards, go down and pick up a 10-pound brick, and bring it back in one minute and 40 seconds. That way, you know they can swim out, get a victim, make the rescue and get them out quickly, just in case they would need rescue breathing aid.”

Changes Over the Years

Robbins has noticed some changes over the years at the pool.

“It used to be more family-oriented – the parents would come with the children, and the whole family would get into the pool.

Now, mostly the kids come alone or with a babysitter. Some parents do still come with their children.”

Another change she has seen are the work habits of youth.

“Back thirty years ago, people wanted to work, and I had a ton of lifeguards. Now it seems like it is harder to get young people to work,” she said.

“Now that the economy changed, that may be the reason I have seen an increase in applicants, because they need a job and it’s harder to get jobs other places,” Robbins said.

The only other employee beside the lifeguards is the cashier, who is not required to be a certified lifeguard. But Robbins requires the cashier to be certified in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and first aid. A cleanup person is also employed, but works only when the pool is closed.

Whether Lisa Robbins is talking about her role as a kindergarten teacher or as the manager of the swimming pool, one thing is obvious – she loves what she does, feels that God has blessed her with both jobs and is dedicated to teaching, caring for and keeping safe the children entrusted to her care.