The days of receiving a fabric Red Cross badge for successfully passing your swimming lessons will soon be over.

Jane Hansen, manager at the Steinbach Aquatic Centre says they’ve been teaching swimming lessons using the Red Cross program ever since the center opened in 2002.

The Canadian Red Cross has been teaching people how to swim for the past 75 years. It has provided swim training and lifesaving skills to more than 40 million Canadians. The organization said in a media release earlier this year, that as of the end of 2022, it would be directing more attention toward areas such as its disaster and pandemic response making room for the Lifesaving Society of Canada to transition in. 

The Canadian Red Cross started it's swimming lesson programming 75 years ago. (Photo credit: Canadian Red Cross website)

Hansen understands the reason for the Red Cross to phase out swimming lessons to put more effort into humanitarian projects. She says, “Yeah, it's kind of sad to see them go, but that's the way it is.”

She says, “the transition for kids that are in Preschool and Swim Kids with the Red Cross now, will be a very simple transition. Once we have everything down pat, we'll get a conversion chart out to everyone and send out mass emails and let everyone know how to register their kids in the Lifesaving Society program.”

Hansen says the ‘animal names’ used by the Red Cross to classify swimmers will be replaced with Preschool One / Preschool Two and so on. “We're just taking names from the Lifesaving Society, and so there are Preschool and Swimmer programs.”

She says there will be no badges to sew on bathing suits, but she is still waiting to find out what the Lifesaving Society is going to do to reward swimmers' achievements.

For the older swimmers, however, who are working for their lifeguard certification, they do need to take some different courses.

Hansen says their Red Cross Instructor certification is transferable. She says, “there's an online course that you can take through the Lifesaving Society. However, if you are in a Red Cross lifeguarding course, then you just need to transfer it over to the National Lifeguard, which is the Lifesaving Society equivalent.”

She says, in Manitoba, one must be 16 years old to work. “The Lifesaving Society does allow people to take these courses at 15 years old, while the Red Cross allowed people to take courses, like being an assistant lifeguard, at age 13 So consequently because of that age difference, if kids are still 13, they can take a Bronze Cross Recertification first and then that gets them into the Lifesaving Society stream, and then once they hit 15 then they can just go right into the National Lifeguard course.”

Hansen clarifies, “So keeping up with the lifesaving skills won’t be difficult. It's just a matter of making sure that people understand what it is they need to do.”

Jane Hansen, Steinbach Aquatic Centre Manager

When it comes to the transition and the cost of swimming lessons under the Lifesaving Society, Hansen says there won’t be any change. “It'll just switch over. We have 30-minute classes and 45-minute classes and we have 60-minute classes. So, our pricing won't change with regards to which program we use, it'll still depend on the length of time that the course is being run.”

Regarding the staff at the Aquatic Centre, Hansen says they still all have jobs. “We are in the process now, of getting our staff transferred over so that they can teach the Lifesaving Society programming.”

Although they did have a few people who chose to find other employment during the mandatory closure, which was expected, she says “we have hired, rehired and we'll be taking a look to see how much more staff we might need.”

Hansen says when it comes to their facility and cleanliness, they are still doing some sanitizing in the change rooms “just to be on the safe side.” The Aquatic Centre closes down for an hour in between swims “to make sure that our facility stays nice and clean and everybody feels comfortable being here.”

The Steinbach Aquatic Centre has been busy since the province lifted restrictions in public places. “We are seeing a lot more people coming in. It's really, really nice to have people back in our facility. We're very very happy. It’s wonderful.”