Our Enhanced Guard Engagement During COVID-19
Just because we can’t physically be together, doesn’t mean we can’t interact with our guards! We have been using the extra time spent at home to engage with our Guard for Life community in various ways. In a time where we are longing for time spent with our family and friends, we saw an opportunity to stay more connected with our guards than ever before. When someone joins the Guard for Life team, they are instantly connected with 8,000 other guards just like them, so why not take advantage of the built-in community they have right at their fingertips.
Some of the ways we have been connecting with our guards include: staying active with a summer-long step challenge, having fun with Zoom Pictionary game nights, keeping healthy with the 3 sages app, and we even held a tie-dyeing contest. Keep reading for a better look into our guard engagement these last few months!
Guard for Life Step Challenge
As we all began to adjust to our new normal, we recognized that the one thing that remains the same is our ability to head outdoors for some much needed fresh air and exercise. This is why we decided to challenge our lifeguards to join us in our Guard for Life Step Challenge!
To get the challenge started, we created our own club team through the Strava app so our guards can compete for the most steps all summer long. Guards can choose between various activities such as walking, running, biking, hiking, and even swimming to track their steps. The top three guards who complete the most steps by the end of the summer will win a brand new JBL Flip 4 Bluetooth speaker. We can’t wait to see who comes out on top!
Zoom Pictionary
Another fun way we connected with our guards is through Zoom PIctionary! This is just like regular Pictionary except teams competed through video calls on Zoom by using the whiteboard feature to draw their words. Various American Pool offices recruited three lifeguards to join their team and battled head-to-head against other American Pool offices across the country. Offices competed in playoff style until there was one ultimate Pictionary champion. We are proud to announce American Pool Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey are our 2020 Pictionary champions! Watch the live recording of the final match on our Facebook page!
3 Sages
We want our lifeguard team to be as healthy as possible as we enter the summer months, which is why we have worked with Three Sages to offer the Three Sages app to our guards for free through the end of June. Three Sages helps integrate wellness by offering short, targeted, and efficient content to help you feel better within minutes. We are extending this offer to our guards’ friends and family as well because we could all use a little extra balance in our lives these days.
Tie-Dye Contest
We helped cure our lifeguards’ boredom with a tie-dye contest! We sent Guard for Life t-shirts to a select number of our guards to tie-dye for the chance to win a custom GFL Yeti water bottle. Each guard was asked to document the tie-dying process and send in pictures of their final tie-dye creation. The final four designs went to the final voting round on our Guard for Life Instagram. The votes were super close and our 2020 Tie-Dye Contest winner was Sophia P. from American Pool Long Island!
We know this season will be anything but ordinary, but we’re making the best of it by getting creative with the ways we stay connected with our Guard for Life community. We are looking forward to the 2020 pool season and we can’t wait to see our guards when the time comes!